Design

Vibrant Colors and Eccentric Designs of the 1980s—The Iconic Memphis Group

Magda Michalska 24 March 2025 min Read

Heard of the Memphis Group? This international group of designers and architects met in Milan, Italy, one day to develop a new design style. It quickly became a revolutionary global cultural phenomenon of the 1980s.

Formation

Ettore Sottsass, Ashoka, 1981, source: https://www.memphis-milano.com, memphis design group
Ettore Sottsass, Ashoka, lamp in lacquered metal, 1981. Memphis Milano.

Founded by Ettore Sottsass and Barbara Radice in 1981, Memphis challenged the dominating Minimalist trend and the idea that design should above all be functional and useful. With the colorful and pop-art-like style objects, the group advocated a more sensorial and fun approach to design.

Name

Memphis Group logo.

How come a group of artists chooses a name Memphis for their collective-to-be? During the first meeting on December 1, 1980, when Sottsass in his sixties invited younger artists to bring their ideas and drawings for new objects for the following year’s Milan Furniture Fair, the Bob Dylan song entitled Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again was played repeatedly on the record player. Since the needle kept sticking on the last words of the title, it somehow naturally gave a name to the group.

Members

Ettore Sottsass, Carlton, 1981, source: https://www.memphis-milano.com, memphis design group
Ettore Sottsass, Carlton, room divider in wood and plastic laminate, 1981. Memphis Milano.

The collective was quickly joined by designers from all over the world like Masanori Umeda (Japan), Peter Shire (US), George J.Sowden (UK), Nathalie Du Pasquier (France), Martine Bedin (France), Gerard Taylor (UK), and many many others…

Opinions

Nathalie Du Pasquier, Cauliflower, 1985, https://www.memphis-milano.com, memphis design group
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Cauliflower, ceramic pot, 1985. Memphis Milano.

Memphis design was often ridiculed and described as bizarre or “a shotgun wedding between Bauhaus and Fisher-Price”, and simply a fad. Even though the misunderstood style made the members of Memphis Group go separate ways just 6 years after the formation, the geometric and colorful style persisted and became widely accepted in the 1990s.

Martine Bedin, Cucumber, 1985, https://www.memphis-milano.com, design group
Martine Bedin, Cucumber, ceramic flower vase, 1985. Memphis Milano.

Despite the critique, the collective exhibited their characteristic super-sizing, fluorescent colors, exotic patterns and cheesy motifs, annually from 1981 to 1988.

Peter Shire, Bel Air, Armchair in cotton fabric, 1982, source: https://www.memphis-milano.com
Peter Shire, Bel Air, armchair in cotton fabric, 1982. Memphis Milano.

The group produced everything: from glass vases to furniture, carpets, lighting, ceramics, fabrics, to metal objects.

Nathalie Du Pasquier, Bombay, Side table in plastic laminate, 1986, source: https://www.memphis-milano.com
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Bombay, side table in plastic laminate, 1986. Memphis Milano.
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Arizona, wool rug, hand-knotted on traditional loom, 1983. Memphis Milano.

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