#wacky pomo

[evan-collins90]

AMC Studio 30 Theatre - Houston, TX (1997)

"What the design attempts to do in the 110,000 sq. ft. space is simulate a movie studio backlot and the soundstage where guests become part of the action, and the experience "rekindles the magic and memory of movie going."

Elements from sound stages and studio road cases make up the central lobby space along with a guest service desk. Images of Hollywood's glamorous stars of the past add enchantment to the balcony walls. The space is divided into three themed areas that "transport guests into fantastic worlds of Animation, Action/Adventure and Cyberspace." The food concession stands within each area carries through the theme; "Fizz, Sizzle, Pop"; Wildebeest Feast"; and "Quantum Bits." The 30 auditoria are located off the soundstage lobby and within the various themed areas.

The architecture seems to come alive in the Animation area. The space is designed to resemble an animation cel: "flat, two-dimensional, cartoon-like graphics are outlined with black lines, filled with color and applied on an exaggerated scale." The Fizz, Sizzle, Pop concession's identity and blimp directional signs seem to float in a blue sky with flat, cut-out clouds. The setting for Action/ Adventure recalls a rainforest with heavy hanging leaves, bamboo and rock "carved" directional signs. The custom wall covering features petroglyphs of cave people carrying popcorn, megaphones and movie cameras. The fiber optic eyes peering from behind the leaves in the Wildebeest Feast stand change color. They also appear above rock outcroppings down the corridor. Patrons are invited to explore an abstract, futuristic world in Cyberspace where the floor and ceiling are the same color and brushed aluminum columns rise partway to the ceiling. To create the illusion of "endless space." custom light fixtures project beams of light along the walls and backlit graphic images have neon edges. Various colored lights and a high-tech fluorescent green/orange acrylic sign help to define the Quantum Bits concession area in Cyberspace."

Designed by Kiku Obata & Co.

Scanned from the book, Entertainment Destinations by Martin Pegler (2000)

[lolcatsaestheticdump]

[sealhaus]

How it feels to randomly obsess over the apartment of an OC you never talk about

I was going for something between beetlejuice house and wacky pomo

[stormmcloudd]

some digital drawings i made in 2023 | these are heavily inspired by the memphis milano/wacky pomp aesthetics from the late 80s and early 90s.

(my art)

[toontownmayor]

rocko moodboard

[zimulacrum]

FRANKENPHOTOS TIME

[manta-carta]

color tests, material tests….and other shennaniganry

the fact that the beaker doodle is on the higher res canvas

truly, there is no plan.

[vulture-k1tty]

its name is €§[€^…¥\€ very goofy very funny

[y2craze]

90s Extreme Craze

From about the early 1990s to about the early 2000s, extreme sports took over the mainstream, but not only that there was also extreme violence and action in media as well as extreme merchandising and promotion, these would be usually centred around, insane stunts or just overall edginess for shock value, the skateboarding subculture, was really leading this trend but it pretty much effected most of pop culture. For example if you opened your TV back in the 90s you’d be met with, overly edgy advertising, skateboarding promos and alternative media in general, contrast this trend with grunge and you can see why grunge lasted as long as it did.

What happened to this trend? Nothing in fact it became a bit stronger by the early 2000s, especially with the rise of Nu Metal and Pop Punk, and as most trends it just evolved and morphed into other things, but this trend I’d say was a little more identifiable and heavily abrasive which gave more weight, to the appeal.

Again this is an outsiders perspective, I did not grow up in the 90s, these are just from research and word of mouth.

[apotheoseity]

straight up wacking my pomo til i ez squeeze about this

[tacomasterstudios]

I’d like to add something else: For anyone under the age of 12, anything ever had to have the mark of WACKY POMO.

Wacky PoMo, otherwise known as Wonka PoMo, was the de facto “kiddie” aesthetic of the 90s. Take the loudness and geometric nature of Memphis, the wacky nature of Looney Tunes-esque cartoons, a bit of grossout, and a whole lot of LSD. Color schemes were bright, saturated, and bold- to put it gently. Straight lines were rare, and parallel lines were rarer. Everything was skewed, stretched, and exaggerated. Airbrushing. Airbrushing everywhere. Subtlety has no place here.

Backgrounds were simple, but never bland. They typically had some sort of pattern, usually warped or distorted in some way. One of two patterns were usually used- a hypnotic spiral, or a checkerboard (with the second color not usually contrasing too much with the first, though exceptions could be made).

Also prevalent were kids, of course- the target market. They were usually either real kids with a 60% chance of fish-eye distortion, or otherwise realistic paintings of kids with a 100% chance of fish-eye distortion to the Nth degree.

Occasionally, however, you would get an illustrated character or two, just as geometric and exaggerated as the design.

If you’ve paid attention to the text, major typefaces follow the same exaggerated, zany, no-parallel-lines-allowed approach as the rest of the design, with common choices being an exaggeration of a slab serif or a geometric style following Wacky PoMo rules of geometry. As for colors, while all colors of the rainbow could be and were used, the most common focal colors were yellow and bright shades of green for “brighter” colors, and purple and dark blue for “darker” colors.

Nickelodeon might as well be considered the inventor of this style, taking their Memphis adoption of the 80s, drenching it in slime, and photographing it through a funhouse mirror. And here’s further kids channel brandings with this aesthetic, because I’m autistic like that.

Both Kids’ WB! logos are standout examples of logos using Wacky PoMo. The latter is a legendary holdout, lasting until 2008 in the states, and 2019 in Australia. (Yes, Kids’ WB! lasted until 2019 in Australia.)

Cartoon Network took the checkerboard motif and ran with it.

CITV proved that this style of design wasn’t limited to the states.

But by far, the most legendary applicant of this style would have to be YTV.

I rest my case.

Everyone gets “The 90s” look wrong so let’s fix it

If you weren’t here for part one, lemme sum it up real fast:

Okay, all up to speed? We’re being served 80s throwback stuff with the serial numbers scratched off, re-labeled as yo totally 90s. What we’ve got now isn’t completely wrong, but I’m telling you, there’s so much gold left unmined.

As we saw in part one with Memphis Milano, these things get messy. Trends don’t start and end neatly every ten years. The first wave of 90s throwback attempts focused on the early part of the decade, and nobody since really pushed to represent the other seven years. Well, if you really wanna do something, I guess you gotta do it yourself.

I have suggestions. Get your flannel ready, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

Keep reading

[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)

[lolcatsaestheticdump]

[pigswithwings]

Show some love! [Based on this post]

[beeclops]

They should totally manufacture all of these fake flavors on purpose actually

Gatorade (1998)

[toontownmayor]

Joesph moodborad