IS THE MEMPHIS AESTHETIC MAKING A COMEBACK?
Reading through articles online and swiping through pictures on Instagram, there's an air of a new style coming to the forefront of design through the work of new designers. This style splashes bright and bold colours across your basic circular and rectangular shapes that form eye catching products. But is this style new? It largely correlates to the aesthetic of the Memphis movement, started by Ettore Sottsass in 1981. The Memphis movement was created as a way of breaking the rules against the conventional shapes, colours, textures and patterns that were designed in that era. It was a design movement that created joy, rebellion and freedom and celebrated diversity and the unorthodox. The style we see now isn't related to the politics of today's world, like the Memphis movement was, but it is truly inspired by the form that the Memphis movement took.
Memphis has become of note most recently, in 2016 David Bowie's personal Memphis furniture collection auctioning for a total of £1.4 million and Christian Dior integrating the Memphis groups' prints and colours into his Autumn/Winter collection in 2011.
Below is a feast of interpretations of the Memphis movement in work of current designers.
Memphis has become of note most recently, in 2016 David Bowie's personal Memphis furniture collection auctioning for a total of £1.4 million and Christian Dior integrating the Memphis groups' prints and colours into his Autumn/Winter collection in 2011.
Below is a feast of interpretations of the Memphis movement in work of current designers.
ABOVE AND RIGHT:
SWEDISH NINJA (RUFUS WALTER SIDEBOARD/NOTEBOOK BENCH/LITTLE DARLING LAMP) |
TOP ABOVE:
YOUNG MIC STYLING BY KITSCH-NITSCH BELOW ABOVE: DANIEL-EMMA (HOME/HOME/COS) |