Table Of Content
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- Elements of Art – An Analysis of the Seven Art Elements
- Digital Artists You Should Know: Famous, Talented, Inspiring
- Christian Dior's 2011 fall collection
- Nathalie Du Pasquier's American Apparel 2014 collection
- Adam Scott on Being a ‘Diverse Facial Hair Styler’ and Grooming
- Anglepoise Original 1227 desk lamp - black
“Form follows function,” the classic Bauhaus mantra, had been twisted to deem any aesthetic flair unnecessary. WWII further escalated this sentiment as shortages in materials led to largely sparse, utilitarian styles that carried over as the decades marched on. Long before all this, there had been a number of fine art and design movements that precipitated Memphis Design, and these were likely on the guests’ minds as they traced where it all had gone wrong.
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How designers are cleverly repurposing every day objects to improve lives and inspire wonder. After seven years of existence, in 1988, the group disbanded, and in 1985 its founder Ettore Sottsass had abandoned the movement, disturbed by the media circus that was created around him. Despite its short existence, Memphis left a fundamental legacy for the history of architecture and design and today, more than 30 years later, it is experiencing a curious resurgence.
Elements of Art – An Analysis of the Seven Art Elements
But unlike most flash-in-the-pan fads, the underlying appeal of Memphis Design was just too strong to vanish completely. That’s why you can see iterations of the style persisting on into the 90s in the fashion and set design of Saved by the Bell or the widely distributed Jazz Design on disposable cups. And in the next section, we’ll talk about how the Memphis Movement is still with us today. Memphis Design found a particular home in US youth culture, standing in sharp contrast to the austerity of the Reagan administration.
Digital Artists You Should Know: Famous, Talented, Inspiring
After moving to Milan in 1982, Taylor became a member of Memphis and over the two years that followed, designed furniture lighting and a variety of small objects. Having previously set up C.D.M (Design Consultancies Milan) with Sottsass, Branzi was asked to join Memphis in 1981 and designed furniture, lighting and other implements sporadically across it's time. By February, the group, bolstered by the addition of George Sowden and Nathalie du Pasquier, had completed over a hundred drawings of furniture, lamps and ceramics. After decades of modernist doctrine, Sottsass and his collaborators longed to be liberated from the tyranny of smart, but soulless ‘good taste’ in design.
Although Memphis was originally made to draw attention to itself, the colors and chaotic shapes can also make foreground elements pop through sheer contrast. Memphis Design is intentionally theatrical, for better or worse, and that alone can make it daunting to work with. It is also one of those styles that is inexorably intertwined with its time period, making the line between fashionably retro and dated a thin one to tread.
What You Need to Know about Memphis Design Pioneer Ettore Sottsass - Artsy
What You Need to Know about Memphis Design Pioneer Ettore Sottsass.
Posted: Mon, 17 Jul 2017 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Within the Memphis movement, Radl was joined by a roster of designers that included architects Aldo Cibic, Matteo Thun, English designer George Sowden and French artist Nathalie Du Pasquier. The new ’80s design trend was like a virus that mutated and devored canons of the industry and visual harmony. These were replaced by laminate and terrazzo materials, squiggles (the Bacterio print, designed by Ettore Sottsass, the founder of the Memphis Group in 1978) and bright, multi-colored objects with a rejection of typical shapes. BMW wanted a piece of the action, and brought in Garage Italia Customs to give two of its cars – an i3 and an i8 – Memphis Group makeovers just in time for Milan Design Week.
Memphis design is no different from most movements in the sense that it was established as a movement of rebellion against what was considered good taste and the norm of the time. The 1900s were the decade of Modernism and Minimalism, which exemplified structure, functionality, straight lines, as well as truth to materials. Having met Sottsass and Raddice in 1980, Peter Shire was invited to join the group in 1981 and made furniture, lighting and small objects for Memphis until 1988. The rule-breaking had begun in December 1980 when Ettore Sottsass, one of Italy’s architectural grandees, met with a group of younger architects in his apartment on Milan’s Via San Galdino. He was in his 60s and his collaborators - Martine Bedin, Aldo Cibic, Michele De Lucchi, Matteo Thun and Marco Zanini – were in their 20s. They were there to discuss Sottsass’ plans to produce a line of furniture with an old friend, Renzo Brugola, owner of a carpentry workshop.
Their solution was to continue the experiments with uncoventional materials, historic forms, kitsch motifs and gaudy colours begun by Studio Alchymia, the radical late 1970s Italian design group to which Sottsass and De Lucchi had belonged. Although classic Memphis Design tends to involve flat colors and simple black-and-white graphic patterns, many contemporary designers have been shaking up the style with more varied textures. Over the course of the 80s, the signature clash of busy patterns and synthetic materials pervaded every aspect of popular culture. From a young Karl Lagerfeld’s chic Monaco apartment to pale imitations in the form of screen-printed Esprit sweatshirts and MTV graphics – Memphis was unavoidable. Back to the Future II’s vision of the new millennium was directly influenced by the group and their designs served as the inspiration for the Max diner from Saved By the Bell. Today, we can easily spot Memphis design (or its particular traits) by the stylized graphic patterns defined by black-and-white stripes and the very abstract squiggles.
With its bold colors, clashing patterns, and radical approach to design, Memphis Design was a polarizing style. Today Memphis Design is the stuff of museum retrospectives and a source of inspiration for modern-day designers. The work of the Memphis Group was also described as ornamental and was conceived to be a fad which would eventually come to an end. They sought to switch the industry’s focus away from Modernism, arguably the most popular kind of design at that point in time—and they did just that, by creating and pioneering the Memphis design movement. The group's official debut was in 1981 with 55 pieces exhibited at the famous Salone del Mobile in Milan.
Vezza, who started Piemonte-based Italian Radical Design Group with his mother Sandra, an avid art collector, says he’s not a custodian of the brand per se. Memphis is not just a brand, a group, or objects, but rather the perception that people have, a spirit. Before his death in 2007, his design consultancy, Sottsass Associati, completed a number of colorfully postmodernist architectural projects. “Memphis is a phenomenon that arose out of cultural and political necessities that are no longer,” he said. In 1946 he moved to Milan, where he curated an exhibition for the Triennale and started contributing to the design magazine Domus.
The Milan-based collective of designers—including Michele de Lucchi, George Sowden and Nathalie du Pasquier—banded together to challenge the rationalist design principles they had been taught. They employed unexpected forms, bold colors, graphic patterns, and cheap materials—like plastic—to forge a new approach to design. If there was such a thing as a “Memphis style” it was characterized by an attitude more than anything else. The newly anointed Memphis Group aimed to create a style that rebelled against the minimalism trends of the '70s and clean midcentury-modern lines of the '50s and '60s.
