#Memphy

[chictape]

Victoria’s Secret x Frankie’s Bikinis Spring 2023

[swankyangles]

Speaking of design in general, not necessarily graphic design, my wife sent me the most unhinged multi-level pun of a cosplay I've ever seen.

It's Memphis Pyramid Head

[dozydawn]

[waffled0g]

Everyone gets “The 90s” look wrong and I hate it

Couple years ago I saw these two board games at the store back to back. Well, not saw them per se, but ya know. Spied them out of the corner of my eye. And for a moment without reading the text, I couldn’t tell you which was which decade at first. Funny. Either they were in a rush to get these out the door or they wanted their throwback trivia game boxes to look uniform. I didn’t think too much of it.

Only, from then on I started seeing it MORE. Every time someone markets a 90s or 80s throwback...

Goddammit they’re identical! What??! How did we let this happen? As a 90s survivor and a designer, this drives me up a wall.

Look, I know I’m late to the party to complain about “the 90s look” when we’re just starting to get sick of the Y2K nostalgia train. But c’mon, the 90s were not The 80s: Part Two™ 

Trust me when I say that we weren’t all wearing neon trapezoids up until the year 2000. The 90s look being peddled is so specific to the tail end of the 80s and an early early part of the 90s - a part of the 90s when it wouldn’t stop being the 80s. This is Memphis design being conflated with the wrong decade.

Keep reading for a long ass graphic design history lesson and pictures of old soda and fast food.

Specifically, the look is Memphis Milano, self-named by the Italian design house Memphis Group. Starting in the early to mid 80s, they made all sorts of furniture, fabrics and sculptures that were like a Piet Mondrian grid painting under heavy radiation. Their whole deal was defying the standards of existing industrial design up to that point on purpose. Chairs had weird arches, bookcases would be in strange alien colors, unusual materials like plastic or elastic were used in place of metal or wood, that sorta thing.

Memphis quickly became the signature look for the decade. You can tell something’s influenced by Memphis design from it’s telltale trademarks:

Clashing, neon colors.

Use of diametric shapes.

Contrasting patterns like zebra print stripes, confetti squiggles and checkerboards.

It wasn’t long before Memphis Milano-inspired design was everywhere in 80s pop culture:

It was a special time, yes.

I was a kindergartener at the tail end of the 80s, so I knew Memphis mostly through the lens of kids media. Toys, clothes, games, tv shows used it like candy colored catnip. Cable channel Nickelodeon more or less adopted the Memphis aesthetic as their signature in-house style and practically built a monument to it at a Florida theme park:

I think this is why folks mistake what decade Memphis is representative of - 90s staples like Nick, Saved By The Bell, Fresh Prince - they all stayed around much longer than the design trend’s expiration date. 

Couple that notion with the fact that companies are slow followers to design trends. Something gets popular and they want to get on the bandwagon? Gotta wait for the ink to dry, gotta wait for the production molds to be made. It would take a few years for them to completely work Memphis outta their system.

Now, this is not to say Memphis is bad! Personally I’m a fan of the aesthetic, if my neon-drenched artwork wasn’t a tip-off already. But it is a trend, and trends never last forever.

So what took the Memphis Milano look down for good? This part’s up for debate, but I personally think it had something to do with this dude:

It’s that grunge music from Seattle that’s so popular with the kids these days dontchaknow.

Once Smells Like Teen Spirit hit in 1991, the Nirvana tone drove the rest of the decade. Clean geometry became weathered, grainy and organic. Bright neon pastels became more bold. Bubblegum pop music sounded fake and manufactured. Attitude and apathy was authentic. Whatever.

Things got grungy. Things got grimy. Olestra was invented.

I think the best way to visualize this transition is how Cherry Coke entered the decade and how it left it:

1992 Memphis on the left, 1998 grunge junkie on the right. Fitting that the 90s would end with a design that looked like Darth Maul’s lungs.

Okay, so what should 90s retro design look like?

Continue on to PART TWO! Spoilers: No VHS filters or vaporwave needed, but maybe bring an antacid.

[transparentcheesecake2]

Its important to inform that Ben Diskin(Black Doom's VA) is currently roleplaying as Black Doom on twitter and here are some of my favorites

Black Doom says no rights

[biglisbonnews]

Dive Into the Cuddle Pit at Marshall Columbia and Club Carry's 'Femme Fantasy' Last month, the tristate area's femme talent, audience and lovers emerged from February's frosty winter hibernation, threw on their skimpiest mesh, fishnet and threadbare rave gear and listened to bewitching DJ sets in a pillowy cuddle pit on the floor of NYC's Knockdown Center. If you were there, you know it wasn't a fever dream — it was an artful Valentine's Day-themed celebration called "Femme Fantasy," hosted by Brooklyn-based party collective Club Carry and Brooklyn-based designer Marshall Columbia.Taking over the spacious Knockdown Center in Queens for a seven-hour party with two stages, "Femme Fantasy" celebrated feminine energy by featuring a stacked lineup of 18 trans and femme performers, with buzzy headliners Bbyafricka, Goth Jafar, Memphy and Club Eat. The diverse lineup ranged from Nola bounce and Baile funk to techno and house."Trans and femme DJs and performers are nightlife," designer Marshall Columbia tells PAPER. "They are the blueprint, and, without them, nightlife would not exist. These are the powerful people who inspire my work." Marshall Columbia, designer of his whimsical, namesake brand (whose designs you've probably seen on Instagram or carried by big-name celebrities like Dua Lipa or Doja Cat) opted for an experiential fashion week show that honored his shared community — and not solely his collection — during the otherwise downtown-obsessed craze of NYFW. Related | The Queer Designer Making Trippy Neon Clothes and Plush Bags"The Brooklyn queer community will always be at the center of the Marshall Columbia brand," Columbia explains. His eccentric designs that tap into zeitgeist trends are playful both in their architecture and in how seriously they're meant to be taken. And just like his designs, which play with social fads with an ironic twist, his move away from the traditional NYFW structure is equally intentional in its cheekiness. Instead of using the classic runway model, Marshall Columbia dressed the performers and DJs in head-to-toe Marshall Columbia looks while they took the stage at the Knockdown Center. Related | KRATER Brings Anti-Fashion to Bushwick for NYFWCo-hosted by Club Carry, a rave-based collective started by Brooklyn DJs Antpuke and Memphy, the event was one of a growing series from the depths of the Club Carry girls' imaginations. Their itinerant party series is flamboyant and highly produced, with the intention of building safer spaces within nightlife for queer people by encouraging community care, radical self-love and harm reduction."We realize that having an accessible platform and community within the nightlife community for queer and trans folk is extremely important and generally lacking within the rave and techno community in the US," says Memphy, a recognized presence in the downtown scene as a rising model and DJ. She continues: "We recognize that the mainstream nightlife scene often prioritizes cisgender and heterosexual individuals, and we are tired of the same old headlining acts."Nightlife and queerness have always existed in tandem with one another, with event spaces playing a critical role in queer and femme communities. These spaces have not only served as safe atmospheres for queer people to congregate and express themselves freely but also offer a place of play and experimentation, birthing diverse music genres, styles of dress and bending expectations and standards of dominant cultures. The events that Club Carry curates are "specifically for queer, trans, POC and anyone who wants to have fun," Memphy explains. "Most importantly, it's a reminder that no one is alone, that there are others out there who share their experiences and understand what they're going through."The party, which raged through the night of February 17th, was set with purple mood lighting, a teddy bear-encrusted DJ booth and a massive cuddle pit filled with mattresses, pillows, pink satin sheets and cushions thanks to set designer Evan Jean. "The cuddle pit was definitely the cutest moment of the party," Marshall Columbia confesses. "Seeing all the different groups of people lying there together was a wholesome moment for sure.""Femme Fantasy" was a night to remember for friends and guests who attended, and the Club Carry girls assure PAPER there will be many more events to come. Photography by Jean Toir https://www.papermag.com/marshall-columbia-club-carry-femme-2659557854.html

[shc2c]

WELCOME TO TILTED TOWERS!

[demilypyro]

I installed one more mod before today's stream and didn't tell anybody. Introducing... MEMPHIS TENNESSEE

[vintagehomecollection]

Interior Visions: Great American Designers and the Showcase House, 1988

[justseventeen]

"January 1985. 'A Sure Cure for the "Bed Room Blahs" -- New Wave Novelties!'

[toshootforthestars]

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ALT TEXT:

Jack Mirkinson on 27 Jan 2023 posted:

a lot of people will say that these things are very complicated but it’s actually pretty simple: this is who the cops are and this is who they will always be

the cops have been indiscriminately killing and brutalizing black people for approximately their entire existence. at a certain point maybe people might want to accept that this is one of their core functions

Bree Newsome Bass on 27 Jan 2023 posted:

“How can it be racist if the police are Black?” BECAUSE THE INSTITUTION OF POLICING ITSELF  IS RACIST

This is why it never works when people try to deflect from the fact that policing itself is the problem & therefore can not be reformed into a solution

There were Black people who worked on the slave patrols & who were hired to help kidnap Africans too. What is difficult to understand?

Who actually controls the institution of policing? The white elite & the ruling class. Who is most impacted by the violence of policing? Poor people, the working class and Black people. Again, what is not clicking here?

[warakami-vaporwave]

Summer 92

[polksaladelvis]

the hottest day in history

august 1st, 1969 at the international hotel ⚡︎

[anthonypresley]

The Plot Thickens

Part of my Memphis Noir Photography Series. Memphis, TN.

2024

Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Redbubble Prints

[biglisbonnews]

Ziwe, Arca and Memphy Walk the Runway for Mugler's Fashion Week Return After an almost three year hiatus from the runway, Mugler returned to an in-person show today in Paris after the couture shows wrapped up. Under Casey Cadwallader, the brand has been experimenting with mixed-media shows and an eclectic cast of familiar and emerging faces on music and pop culture, and today's runway outing was no exception.Related | Mugler to Return to the Runway After Three YearsZiwe, the popular late-night talk show host and a frequent face on the fashion party circuit, made her runway debut for this show, wearing a black lace corseted number with knee-high boots and a high ponytail.In addition to '90s supermodels like Shalom Harlow and Amber Valletta, the show also featured DJ, producer and musician Arca (the Venezuelan superstar seems to be embracing the runway more lately — she opened the Proenza Schouler show last season). Memphy, a New York-based DJ and model with a strong nightlife presence, also walked the show in a sheer lace outfit. Giant rolling cameras and moving platforms transported the models as they entered the space.The models carried the new Spiral Curve 01, Cadwallader's first handbag designed for the house: an asymmetric shoulder bag that comes three sizes and in a plain or embossed material. See more photos from the show in the gallery, below.Photos via Getty https://www.papermag.com/ziwe-arca-memphy-mugler-runway-2659316117.html

[evan-collins90]

Nickelodeon reception desk & entry inside the overall Viacom New York City headquarters (late 1980s) - designed by Patricia Conway and J. Woodson Rainey, Jr.

Mix of the Wacky PoMo and Memphis Jr. design styles, love the aquarium and car/reception desk hybrid

Scanned from 'Women of Design - Contemporary American Interiors' (1992)