Just as the ’70s represented peace, love, hippies, bell bottoms, and flower power, the ’80s were, well, overindulgent. From big hair, frosted eyeshadow, and bright, tight clothes to the emergence of MTV, Footloose, Atari, and Cabbage Patch Kids, this was the decade of excess.

The ’80s seem to constantly replay through our lives. Look at the resurgence of printed T-shirts under blazers with pushed-up sleeves making its way into men’s fashion, Pantone’s pink predictions for 2006, and more blue eyeshadow in high schools. As illustrator Jimmy Turrell shows us, an ’80s-inspired color palette can be “totally awesome.”

In his work for Nike, The New York Times, Universal Records, Dazed & Confused, and more, Turrell often employs sexy pinks, purples, and reds, and serene blues, yellows, and greens. He likes to “raid strange bookshops to find little discarded gems … things that are often found in the most mundane and unlikely places,” Turrell explains. “I guess I’m obsessed with finding the little eccentricities in life that surround us everyday. A lot of my work is steeped in nostalgia, but I try my hardest to examine it in a contemporary setting.”

Turrell uses the hot pinks, yellow-greens, and reds of the ’80s generation to produce bold, striking imagery. His visual scrapbook of ideas and themes helps him create the strange and portentous combinations of images and ideas he seeks. “I want people to question my work,” he says.

Fonts Get Crack Man (chill), Grease (dude), Lake- WobegonNF (tubular), and Feuerfeste (poser) free at www.fontface.com. ITC Souvenir (yuppie) is available at www.myfonts.com. For inspiration look at old TV show titles or movie posters. Totally recommended: www.classic-tv.com/shows/1980s.asp.

Patterns/graphics For bodacious style, check out paisley, checker, bold primary colors, pastels, and geometric shapes.

Images Get stoked with rock band graphics, video arcades, break dancing, boom boxes, leather pants, Rubik’s Cube, tape cassettes, stonewashed jeans, and roller skating. Images 22947813 and 23349869, both at www.photoobjects.net; and 22848781, Comstock Images, available at www.jupiterimages.com

Classic games Gag out over awful graphics and bleeping sound of popular ’80s video and computer games. Play classics online at www.tripletsandus.com/80s.

PALETTE: '80s

PALETTE: Combinations