Memphis Graphic Style vs Memphis Interior
Memphis Interior is the cross-discipline counterpart of Memphis Graphic Style — shares the squiggle / grid graphic language.
Memphis Graphic Style
The playful, anti-tasteful 1980s style born from Milan's Memphis Group — squiggles, confetti dots, zigzags, and clashing pastel-and-primary color against black.
- Squiggles, zigzags, and the signature 'Bacterio' scribble
- Confetti dots and terrazzo-speckle textures
- Clashing pastels and saturated primaries, often on black
- Bold geometric shapes in playful, scattered arrangements
- Decorative excess that rejects modernist restraint
Memphis Interior
The riotous Milan interior of squiggle-printed laminates, primary colors, and toy-like asymmetric furniture — Sottsass and the Memphis Group turning the room into a defiantly playful collage.
- Plastic laminates printed with squiggles, grids, and terrazzo
- Clashing primary and pastel colors used at full volume
- Asymmetric, toy-like furniture on stubby geometric legs
- Flattened hierarchy mixing cheap laminate with marble
- Totemic lamps and shelving as room-defining sculpture
At a glance
| Memphis Graphic Style | Memphis Interior | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | c. 1981–1990 | 1981–1988 |
| Discipline | Graphic Design | Interior Design |
| Region | Italy, United States | Italy |
| Family | Postmodern, Vernacular/Pop | Postmodernism, Pop |
| Formal traits | squiggle, confetti, clashing-color, geometric | color-clashing, patterned, asymmetric, playful |
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