Even though it wasn’t around until the early 90s, when I think about the 80s the first image that comes to mind is Rocko’s Modern Life; there is something about this show that to me is reminiscent of the 1980s Memphis design style.

The Memphis style was characterized by bright coloring and bold shapes and lines. Although it was intended to be predominantly used for interior design there were many cross overs into the graphic design world.

The advertising world did not exactly grab onto the Memphis style, however, it did have its place with companies like MTV making use of this trend. According to Glenn Adamson, a senior scholar at the Yale Center of British Art, the design trend caught on very quickly before it eventually died out at the end of the decade:

It was this huge phenomenon, and then you saw it caught on very, very quickly as the look of the ’80s. How that happened is fashion, you know. I always think it’s important that it happened virtually simultaneously with MTV, which also launched in 1981. And if you think about the logo of MTV with all those colors and patterns and the scratchy graphics, that clearly is close to the graphic designs coming out of Italy that were in context of which Memphis emerged.

• 

• 

• 

Even though it was 5 years after the 80s concluded the 1995 Apple Watch kept the Memphis aesthetic alive with a bold, simple design based on geometric shapes and bold primary colours. It was part of a marketing drive, the quartz-faced, analogue timepiece was never sold as a standalone item, instead, it was offered as a freebie if you upgraded to Mac System 7.5.

Roll on 80s Deco

Let’s take a side step from Memphis to the 80s Deco design style… It’s a design style that is sedate, yet synonymous with the 80’s. In fact, it appears that deco pulls from several movements including Memphis and tropical design styles.

The Deco style used sans-serif fonts along with pronounced angles to create a bold illustration.  It was preceded by original art deco which combined modernism with craftsmanship. Deco is minimalist design with a bit of 80’s flare.

Keeping Deco in mind I will take this opportunity to introduce the Tropical design style of the 1980s. Palm trees and neon pastels were everywhere, from t-shirts to illustrations and even in popular movies.

The light colorful creations were one more piece of the recipe in the 80s, representing a culture that wanted bigger, better, and brighter.

• 

• 

Whats next? Neon Noir…

Neon Noir is iconically 80s. They talk the dark and gloomy styles of the 40s and 50s neo-noir film genre and hung a neon sign on it.

Neon Noir is characterised by its stylised use of light to create a visually stunning picture. In designs employing the neon noir style of the 80s, you’ll see bright, man-made lights that provide a stark contrast to the dark environment around them.

Neon Noir and cyberpunk trends had their place in the world of film and film advertising/posters, in many ways it’s still used to this day. However, as far as print advertising goes… I am more than happy to see the back of Neon Noir in the 21st century.