Memphis Design is 1980’s aesthetic that is known for its bright colours and patterns. It began in 1981 in Italy and is named after Bob Dylan’s song called Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again.
Like many movements in art, this was created to go against the status quo. In the 1960-1970’s minimalism was about straight lines and structure. To go against that, Sottass (the person who created this style) centred him and the group thought to be “radical, funny and outrageous” to disregard what everyone else was doing. His group set out to design furniture, patterns, ceramics, and fabric designs that were inspired by pop art and art deco.
The main features of Memphis Design were:
- Bold patterns, mainly using triangles, circles and squiggles.
- Colour clashes, often using neon colours.
- Stripes, using black and white to contrast the neon shapes.
I created some art in the style of Memphis Design, I used bright neon colours for the shapes and white for the lines and squiggles. Overall, I quite like this style and I would love to explore it further throughout this project. I do think I have too much space in this art piece that I did so I will remember to add more shapes to it.
