Corporate Memphis (alternative names: Alegria art, big tech art, flat art, or corporate artstyle ^[1]) is an art style named after the Memphis Group that features flat areas of color and geometric elements. Widely associated with Big Tech illustrations in the late 2010s ^[2] and early 2020s, ^[3] it has been criticized for its use in sanitising corporate communication, ^[2] as well as being seen as visually offensive, insincere, pandering and over-saturated, ^[1] though some illustrators have defended the style, pointing at what they claim to be its art-historical legitimacy. ^[4]

Origins

Flat art developed out of the rise of vector graphic programs, and a nostalgia for mid-century modern illustration. ^[4] It began to trend in editorial illustration and especially the tech industry, which relied on simple, scalable illustrations to fill white space and add character to apps and web pages. ^[2] The style was widely popularized when Facebook introduced Alegria, an illustration system commissioned from design agency Buck Studios and illustrator Xoana Herrera ^[2] in 2017. ^{[5] [6]}

The name "Corporate Memphis" originated from the title of an Are.na board that collected early examples, ^[2] and is a reference to the Memphis Group, a 1980s design group known for bright colors, childish patterns, and geometric shapes. ^[6] The style itself was inspired by a synthesis of elements spanning the 20th-century, including the Art Deco style of the 1920s, futurism in interior design from the Atomic Age, and color and patterns from the Pop Art movement. ^[6]

Visual characteristics

Common motifs are flat human characters in action, with disproportionate features such as long and bendy limbs, ^[3] small torsos, ^[7] minimal or no facial features, and bright colors without any blending. Facebook's Alegria uses non-representational skin colors such as blues and purples in order to feel universal, ^[5] though some artists working in the style opt for more realistic skin colors and features to show diversity. ^[2] However, such style has overall been criticised for tokenism and feeling inauthentic. ^[1]

Corporate Memphis is materially quick, cheap and easy to produce, and thus appealing to companies; programs such as Adobe Illustrator can produce such designs rapidly. ^[1]

Reception

Once Facebook adopted the style, the sudden ubiquity of vector graphics led to a critical backlash. ^[4] The style has been criticized both professionally and popularly (including in myriad internet memes) for being overly minimalistic, ^[1] generic, ^[8] lazy, ^[3] overused, and attempting to sanitise public perception of big tech companies by presenting human interaction in utopian optimism. ^[2] Criticism of the art style is often rooted in larger anxieties about the creative industry under capitalism and neoliberalism. ^[7] Some^{[ who?]} have argued that, despite the criticism, Corporate Memphis has unexpected depth and variety, and deserves to be understood on its own merits beyond an association with tech dystopias. ^[4]

See also

• Material design, a Google-derived design language linked to Corporate Memphis
• Frutiger Aero, a prominent design style preceding Corporate Memphis that embraced contrasting skeuomorphism
• Flat design
• Postmodern art
• Metamodernism
• Pop art
• Capitalist realism

References