Memphis Design

Bright colors, graphic patterns, and bold geometric shapes characterize the aesthetic of the Memphis Group, the Italian postmodern design collective founded by Ettore Sottsass in 1980. Active through 1987, the group included architects, furniture designers, product designers, as well as writers—Alessandro Mendini, Nathalie du Pasquier, and Martine Bedin, among them—who aimed to produce radical designs that liberated form from function. Named after the Bob Dylan song “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” Memphis drew upon a variety of influences, from Art Deco to Pop art to 1950s kitsch, and marked a significant departure from the restrained, minimalist designs of the 1970s. Over the past decade, Memphis design has …