do you remember memphis ?

a brief history of memphis design group. at the beginning of the 1960s, sottsass travelled to the us and india

the blues

ettore sottsass has never let himself be pinned down
to working as an industrial designer,
but he has also never given up being an industrial designer.

he creates things that are objects of use, but also of contemplation.
sottsass started doing this in 1938, while he was still a student.

at the beginning of the 1960s, sottsass travelled to the us and india
and became influenced by both (beatnik-) pop and tantric art.
the overall design vocabulary used by sottsass is based
on preliminary methodological thought.
he focuses on a differentiated treatment of function problems
and accentuated visibility of the sign character -
the use of colour, emphasis on volume, composite structure,
structuring of the surface...

public success on large scale did not really come until memphis.
he was 65 at the time.
the group existed from 1981 to 1988.

memphis

in autumn 1980 sottsass parted company with studio alchimia,
then shortly afterwards laid the foundation-stone for a new initiative:
the memphis design association.

11.12.1980 michele de lucchi, barbara radice, marco zannini,
aldo cibic, matteo thun, martine bedin, were discussing on
the new project at sottsass' home while playing again and again
the 'memphis blues' by bob dylan.
sottsass said: 'let's call it memphis'.

other contributing members were:
george sowden, nathalie du pasquier,
alessandro mendini, andrea branzi,
peter shire, hans hollein, arata isozaki,
terry jones, shiro kuramata, javier mariscal,
paola navone, studio alchimia, masanori umeda,
michael graves.

09.02.1981 first drawings of furniture for the memphis collection.

18.09.1981 the first presentation at the showroom arc'74
in milan. with over 50 works on show, it was an enormous
success, 2500 visitors attended the opening.
the initiative was defined and directed solely by designers
themselves. the memphis première was international in
character, involving architects from italy, france, great britain,
austria, japan and the usa.

the 80s design boom was starting to take off and
the 'memphis' recipe was very easy to follow .
innumerable bad copies were produced all over the world.
sottsass left the group in march 1987.

---
read the interviews

/ ettore sottsass interview

/ matteo thun interview

/ aldo cibic interview

/ back to the article 'memphis remembered'

invitation, first memphis presentation,
18.09.198, graphics by luciano paccagnella.

'memphis, the new international style',
book-cover, electa 1981

invitation, third memphis exhibition, 11.09.1983

logo by christoph radl, 1982

logo by valentina grego, 1983

logo by christoph radl, 1983

logo, by christoph radl, 1983

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