Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design (1985)

Memphis has shaken the design world to its foundations. It is difficult to accept that this international group of architects and designers, based in Italy and led by the celebrated Ettore Sottsass, Jr., was founded as recently as 1981. Since then, it has overturned and reshaped the presuppositions on which the production of so-called Modern Design is based, and has become the almost mythical symbol of the New Design.

Laughing out loud at our culture and at itself, Memphis – a kind of cartoon come to life – often satirizes the commercial styles of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s; and it pulls out all the stops when it comes to colour, pattern, decoration and ornamentation, producing such items as a bed that looks like a boxing ring, brightly coloured chairs that resemble anthropomorphic creatures poised to dance, or wallpapers and prints that look like fantastic sweet wrappers. As Paris Match said, ‘Interior design will never return to what it was before Memphis.’

Written by a founder-member of the group, this is the first comprehensive work on Memphis to be published. Illustrated with 270 colour and black-and-white examples of its most lively, humorous and outrageous designs, it is a crucial contribution to the continuing dialogue on pop culture, the avant-garde and design.

Condition: some light creasing to top edge of dust-wrapper and some minor chipping to top and tail of its spine, otherwise very good.