Discover · 1981

Memphis

In 1981, in Milan, a group of Italian designers led by Ettore Sottsass got bored of minimalism. They decided furniture, of all things, should have a sense of humor.

Memphis was loud on purpose. It borrowed the cheap materials of everyday consumer goods, plastic laminate, terrazzo, and used them without apology. Shapes were placed haphazardly across a piece, chosen for how they felt rather than how they resolved. There was no interest in taste, only in energy.

The movement's signature print was Bacterio, Sottsass's own pattern of restless black squiggles and dots, named after bacteria under a microscope. It's arguably the single most recognizable textile pattern to come out of the 20th century's postmodern turn.

Two objects define the era better than any others. The Carlton bookcase, an asymmetric fan of colored laminate blocks balanced on a single triangular foot, reads less like furniture and more like a totem. And the Tahiti lamp, shaped like a stylized bird with a round pink head, a yellow neck, and a black triangular foot, is pure Memphis whimsy: an object that refuses to just be useful.

Memphis didn't last long as a formal movement. It didn't need to. It changed what a generation of designers thought furniture, and pattern, were allowed to do.