Geometric 80s Memphis Clock Battery Operated Wall Clocks Decorative Round Clock Easy to Read Wall Clock for Living Room Home Office School 10 Inch

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Sottsass, an industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, gathered a core group of young designers into a collective in 1980 they called Memphis. Members of the Memphis Group, which would come to include Martine Bedin, Michael Graves, Marco Zanini, Shiro Kuramata, Michele de Lucchi and Matteo Thun, saw design as a means of communication, and they wanted it to shout. That it did: The first Memphis collection appeared in 1981 in Milan and broke all the modernist taboos, embracing irony, kitsch, wild ornamentation and bad taste. These include the abstract shapes and colors of Cubism, De Stijl and Harlem Renaissance art. Also the Pop Art movement of the 60s, which challenged highbrow taste by incorporating elements of popular “low” culture. Imagine you’re at a party, and you’re bored. You’ve been bored for a while—years, it feels like. You wonder how a party, something that is supposed to be fun, can feel like it’s draining the life out of your very soul. As you look around the yawning faces of the guests, you realize it’s going to take drastic measures to salvage any excitement out of this long night. So you sneak a desperate gulp of your drink, slip on your tinted sunglasses and leap atop of the sofa. You’ve sacrificed yourself to karaoke.

Postmodern design was a short-lived movement that manifested itself chiefly in Italy and the United States in the early 1980s. The characteristics of vintage postmodern furniture and other postmodern objects and decor for the home included loud-patterned, usually plastic surfaces; strange proportions, vibrant colors and weird angles; and a vague-at-best relationship between form and function. But no style was more influential on Memphis Design than modern minimalism. “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. The designers that made up the Memphis group, founded by Ettore Sottsass. Image via Memphis Milano Critics derided postmodern design as a grandstanding bid for attention and nothing of consequence. Decades later, the fact that postmodernism still has the power to provoke thoughts, along with other reactions, proves they were not entirely correct.A designer of Italian origins, Paolo has over 13 years industry experience obtained from working in mixed discipline design studios in the UK and abroad.

As design influence is cyclical, it is quite easy to spot products showing the influence of Memphis design. With that in mind, we’re going to give you tips on how to leverage this classic style to your benefit by walking you through the history of Memphis Design and its modern incarnations. What is Memphis Design? Memphis Design found a particular home in US youth culture, standing in sharp contrast to the austerity of the Reagan administration. This was capped by the emerging MTV channel adopting the aesthetic for its logo.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. Kadinsky’s work also likely inspired the Memphis design movement. Image via Wikimedia commons