10 Iconic examples of Memphis design

Described by one critic as "a shotgun wedding between Bauhaus and Fisher-Price", the Memphis design aesthetic embodies the 1980s in so many ways: colourful, kitsch and garish. In recent years it's come back into fashion in a big way, so what can we learn from this major design trend?

Simple geometric shapes; flat colours combined in bold, contrasting palettes; stylised graphic patterns defined by black-and-white stripes and abstract squiggles – these are the ingredients of Memphis-inspired design, fuelled by influences from earlier movements such as Pop Art and Art Deco.

1. Garage Italia Customs' Memphis-inspired BMWs

The bold designs were inside and out

Which brings us to 2017, and after a journey that started as a relatively brief experimental movement within furniture design, the Memphis design trend has weaved its way through haute couture fashion, textiles and mainstream apparel into murals, homewares, streetwear and pattern design.

Where next? A giant corporate superbrand, of course. BMW wanted a piece of the action, and brought in Garage Italia Customs to give two of its cars – an i3 and an i8 – Memphis Group makeovers just in time for Milan Design Week. The resulting paint jobs featured a patchwork of bright colours and bold patterns, continued inside the vehicle with patterned textiles.

Designed under the guidance of original Memphis Group member Michele de Lucchi, the paintwork comes complete with trademark monochrome stripes and grid pattern, the well-established yellow, teal and orange colour palette, and distinctive Memphis-style geometric shapes that are carefully adapted to the contours of the vehicle.

2. Ettore Sottsass' Carlton

Is it a bookcase, room divider, dresser, or art?

The original Memphis Group created a wide range of bizarre creations that won celebrity fans from Karl Lagerfeld to David Bowie. The Ashoka lamp is one of them – but arguably the most iconic of all, and therefore the perfect start to this list, is Ettore Sottsass' Carlton.

Built from sections of laminated MDF, the Carlton could be seen as a bookcase, a room divider or a dresser – or all three – but like many of the Memphis Group's creations, it seems equally comfortable as a modern art installation.


Designed in 1981, it can be found in design museums around the world, and in fact it's still available for purchase from the Memphis Group website – for the princely sum of €13,200.40 (around $16,154 or £11,636).

Even if you could afford one, you'd need a substantial living room to house it, as the Carlton is enormous – almost two metres square. It's also the perfect checklist for the Memphis style: a bold colour palette, strong, stark lines, and a geometric structure: its various partitions, voids and shelves are based around a system of equilateral triangles.

3. The original 1995 Apple Watch

This watch didn't bug you about when to stand up

Most people would argue the Apple Watch was released in 2015, and they'd be right. But the high-end glossy touchscreen smart watch wasn't technically Apple's first attempt: 20 years earlier, it had a Memphis-inspired predecessor.

Part of a marketing drive, the quartz-faced, analogue timepiece was never actually sold as a standalone item, but offered as a freebie if you upgraded to Mac System 7.5.

Long before the modern-day Memphis revival, this watch kept the aesthetic alive in the mid-90s with a bold, simple design based on geometric shapes, bold primary colours, and a delightfully playful squiggle for a second-hand.

4. Christian Dior's 2011 fall collection

Katy Perry wore this Dior Memphis-style outfit to an MTV awards

After Sottsass' death, interest in the Memphis style began to grow. It influenced high fashion houses Missoni, Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Dior, and the latter's 2011 collection helped kick-start the modern movement in earnest.

Bold, graphic black-and-white stripes and crazy-paving-style graphics; vibrant contrasting palettes, and patterns defined by simple shapes and squiggles; and pure, chunky geometric shapes worn as headgear combined to make the catwalk show a must-have checklist of Memphis inspiration.

And once Katy Perry donned one of the collection's utterly unmissable outfits at the MTV Video Music Awards later that year, there was no going back: Memphis was firmly on the world's radar.

5. Nathalie Du Pasquier's Tapigri rug

The designer of this rug, Nathalie Du Pasquier, was an original Memphis Group member

Two years after Christian Dior wowed the fashion world, Memphis-inspired patterns and designs were everywhere at Milan Design Week 2013. Original Memphis Group member Nathalie Du Pasquier applied her distinctive graphic patterns to a rug produced by La Chance, revealed at the show.

Like a visual crib-sheet of Memphis motifs, Du Pasquier's Tapigri rug features simple 3D silhouettes of cubes, decorated by rough monochrome patterns, on a background of overlapping dark blue squares and circles – with a bright primary-yellow trim. The same design is also available in black, white and grey for a more Art Deco vibe.