Corporate Memphis - Aesthetic Highlight #20

[Emmy Fitz]

In "celebration" of reaching the 20th installment of my Aesthetic Highlight series, let's take an introspective look at the 2020's most defining one thus far. The infamous:

Corporate Memphis (Late 2010s-present day)

Corporate Memphis is an aesthetic birthed by big tech companies during the late 2010s, specifically Facebook's Alegria illustration's in 2017. The aesthetic is characterized by its bright colors, symmetrical designs, and its notably unproportioned characters of zero specific racial and often gender origin.

I'm curious to hear what you all have to say about this art style. Yes, it represents the monopolization of big tech on the surface web. Yes, the art is seen everywhere. And, yes, it's long overstayed its welcome and has been the subject of parody and criticism. But what's worth noting is that this, along with most of the aesthetics we've discussed, grow from corporate interest and propaganda. Do we love Global Village Coffeehouse or Y2K for what it means or represents, or do we love it because it's nostalgic? While I can't say I particularly adore the current Corporate Memphis style, I know that one day, when it's a blip from the past and long out of style, it will remind me of this particular point in time, as have every other aesthetic I and others have through. Some people, like Linus Boman, ask if we hate the artstyle or if we hate what it represents.

This thread, since I predict this aesthetic will be dragged through the mud here, may one day be an example of Corporate Memphis's initial critical reception. Six years after Algeria, and with no end in sight, what do we think of the current aesthetic plastered everywhere in our everyday lives?


​

 

[Dr. MacGutsy]

No human being should be subjected to creating these images. This is something best reserved for AI.

 

[Captain]

Y2K was setting us up for a future that never arrived because our generation wasn't as intelligent as we hoped and just kept the old ways alive.

This is just NPC art. This is what AI would think LinkedIn looks like if LinkedIn was a place. It represents the death of true optimism with manufactured optimism by way of cancel culture, revisionist history, forced diversity, and the mental degradation of society, to the point where gender is more of an identity point than who you are by actions or passions. This locks all the degraded parts of modern life into a never ending artscape of a Matrix like reality by way of social media and mental illness.

This is what the death of our future looks like.

 

[alix]

I'm not even sure if Corporate Memphis should be considered an aesthetic. It's hell. People like and liked Y2K, GCH, Frutiger and others because it showed hope for the future, a colourful future where the real world and technology mixed perfectly, and that was so close.
Corporate Memphis showcases the corporate cultural takeover, a grey soulless mass that has no meaning other than "buy our products and suscribe to our services". An aesthetic made for indoctrination, as normal as possible so that people don't feel the need to think about what is the alternative to this. It's the death of the future, the takeover of art, the stealing of culture, the mark that the new corporate parasytes leave in the land. The total loss of all futures.

Sorry if I went a bit wild with this, I just hate Corporate Memphis so much, I hope it gets removes from the face of the Earth.

 

[manpaint]

I'm not even sure if Corporate Memphis should be considered an aesthetic. It's hell. People like and liked Y2K, GCH, Frutiger and others because it showed hope for the future, a colourful future where the real world and technology mixed perfectly, and that was so close.
Corporate Memphis showcases the corporate cultural takeover, a grey soulless mass that has no meaning other than "buy our products and suscribe to our services". An aesthetic made for indoctrination, as normal as possible so that people don't feel the need to think about what is the alternative to this. It's the death of the future, the takeover of art, the stealing of culture, the mark that the new corporate parasytes leave in the land. The total loss of all futures.

Sorry if I went a bit wild with this, I just hate Corporate Memphis so much, I hope it gets removes from the face of the Earth.

In a couple of years, some kids will likely have some nostalgia for this aestetic, as much as this idea scares me.

 

[Captain]

In a couple of years, some kids will likely have some nostalgia for this aestetic, as much as this idea scares me.

That's how you know who to round up in vans.......I mean.....ahhh.....ya

 

[Sketch Relics]

IT BURNS AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I hope the AI aesthetic that replaces it will be a lot better.

 

[Vaporweeb]

KILL
KILL
KILL
WE HATES IT

WE HATES PRIMARY COLORS
WE HATES NOODLE PEOPLE
WE HATES THE WEIRD UBIQUITY OF EVERY SINGLE TECH ORGANIZATION USING IT

You can't get this shit out of my face fast enough. I simply cannot wait for the next wave of corporate design to squelch through the think tank's sphincter so I don't have to think of or see it ever again.

Prior to the last ten or so years, despite there generally being a certain aesthetic of the zeitgeist, most big websites still felt like they had genuinely distinct identities, before everybody streamlined their logos, flattened their brands, and all had their frontend devs plug in the exact same boring white pages with black text and a strategic use of accent colors, only to slap us with these homonculi in a pathetic attempt to catch our dwindling attention.

Fuck.

 

[splashy]

WHERE IS THE HEART??!?!?!
WHERE IS THE SOVL!?!?!?!?!

 

[the_extramundane]

if we hate the artstyle or if we hate what it represents

Sounds like a trick question. If we rewind with your Aesthetic series that you've made, OP, then we can see a clear downgrade right after Frutiger with this. This minimalism that so many employee now is like a parlor trick to make everything seem so glossy. Yes, these aesthetics we've seen before we're corporate, but they were also humanist and took quite an effort and a lot of creativity to make them look so varied and sometimes, surreal. Especially with Frutiger Aero, which is my personal favorite, the amount of compositing and editing that had to go into some of those images were insane, and required some very divergent thinking. A glossy looking globe in the middle of a field with a cityscape in the background with no roads in sight, clear blue skies, and a lens flare? It's surreal as it is picturesque, and it's picturesque especially due to using actual photography. What does Alegria have to offer? It certainly isn't as varied as Y2K or Frutiger Aero, let alone the original Memphis aesthetic.

Here's the thing though; I'm sure if these companies actually cared, they could try to make it look different, but we've gotten to a point where the simplistic vector graphics that "just werk" with phones and displays of different sizes is all they really care about. They've stripped down their websites to the bare essentials and Alegria was just the style that best suited their needs. It's everywhere, it's mass producible, and it's cheap. It's the fast food of aesthetics.

Just to counter point all this, I'd like to point your attention to something I think actually implements an Alegria aesthetic earnestly, that being the indie video game Going Under.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WNkgFikH4


While the aesthetic is used to some comedic and satirical effect, I gotta say the end result is pretty pleasing to the eye in my opinion. The clean and simple UI is actually pretty nice and the flat colors help to give everything a visual homogeneity without looking boring due the diversity of color (which also helps to separate from one another). I'd be lying if I said aesthetics wasn't a large part in why I picked up this game. However, if this was chosen completely unironically (it's not), then it would certainly be really hard to take seriously because of how outlandish it is.

I guess in that sense you can sum up this look as a whole. Companies want to act like they're so "fun" and "hip" and know you just want to have "fun" and love being "hip" so they use a "fun" and "hip" looking art style and expect you to take them seriously in the meanwhile. In that regard, I imagine most people feel like their intelligence is being insulted, like a clown telling them to get back to work in a mocking, high-pitched voice, honking his horn while acting completely oblivious to your real problems. Cause why wouldn't you unconditionally love their product?

 

[shinobu]

Not only is it bad if you take any of those wacky figures as a standalone piece of art, but it also heralded the beginning of the end of companies putting some care into design in general

Just posting this to cleanse my retinas off of that stuff

 

[imnotdeadyet]

what do we think of the current aesthetic plastered everywhere in our everyday lives?

This garbage makes me want to dig my eyes out, and to think someone actually got paid for this. Really want to see a portfolio of someone that draws these for a living.

We need to bring back websites with over the top and stylish aesthetics, like this. Or don't bring it back, make something new. I've had enough of "clean" and "minimalism" and "profit maximization" and especially with this specific art style. When are we moving on from it? Because I and everyone I know is very much sick of it.

Some people, like Linus Boman, ask if we hate the artstyle or if we hate what it represents.

It's definitely the art style and by a large margin. There are better ways to represent what corpos want to represent but it's less profit friendly and more risky. They don't even have to try and I think these noodle men show it best. They could replace them with a big middle finger and most would still buy whatever the corpo is peddling.

 

[elia925-6]

Sounds like a trick question. If we rewind with your Aesthetic series that you've made, OP, then we can see a clear downgrade right after Frutiger with this. This minimalism that so many employee now is like a parlor trick to make everything seem so glossy. Yes, these aesthetics we've seen before we're corporate, but they were also humanist and took quite an effort and a lot of creativity to make them look so varied and sometimes, surreal. Especially with Frutiger Aero, which is my personal favorite, the amount of compositing and editing that had to go into some of those images were insane, and required some very divergent thinking. A glossy looking globe in the middle of a field with a cityscape in the background with no roads in sight, clear blue skies, and a lens flare? It's surreal as it is picturesque, and it's picturesque especially due to using actual photography. What does Alegria have to offer? It certainly isn't as varied as Y2K or Frutiger Aero, let alone the original Memphis aesthetic.

Here's the thing though; I'm sure if these companies actually cared, they could try to make it look different, but we've gotten to a point where the simplistic vector graphics that "just werk" with phones and displays of different sizes is all they really care about. They've stripped down their websites to the bare essentials and Alegria was just the style that best suited their needs. It's everywhere, it's mass producible, and it's cheap. It's the fast food of aesthetics.

Just to counter point all this, I'd like to point your attention to something I think actually implements an Alegria aesthetic earnestly, that being the indie video game Going Under.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WNkgFikH4


While the aesthetic is used to some comedic and satirical effect, I gotta say the end result is pretty pleasing to the eye in my opinion. The clean and simple UI is actually pretty nice and the flat colors help to give everything a visual homogeneity without looking boring due the diversity of color (which also helps to separate from one another). I'd be lying if I said aesthetics wasn't a large part in why I picked up this game. However, if this was chosen completely unironically (it's not), then it would certainly be really hard to take seriously because of how outlandish it is.

I guess in that sense you can sum up this look as a whole. Companies want to act like they're so "fun" and "hip" and know you just want to have "fun" and love being "hip" so they use a "fun" and "hip" looking art style and expect you to take them seriously in the meanwhile. In that regard, I imagine most people feel like their intelligence is being insulted, like a clown telling them to get back to work in a mocking, high-pitched voice, honking his horn while acting completely oblivious to your real problems. Cause why wouldn't you unconditionally love their product?

The game deserves a sequel with all that stuff happening today. And change the style to pseudo-sophisticated fonts and heavy use of nu-brutalism.

 

[handoferis]

It's notable that corporate memphis is really disappearing quite fast. I barely see it at all anymore.

 

[brentw]

 

[Regal]

My problem with Corporate Memphis is that I feel like my brain is actively being hacked every time I see it. Like, I can feel a psychic attack being performed on me. It is hyper-inoffensive art designed for universal appeal and that weirds me out.

That aside, Corporate Memphis is this generation's clipart. It was cool and useful for 5 seconds, now you eyeroll when you see it because it is considered lazy corpo design, and in 5 years you'll be like, "hey what happened to Corporate Memphis?"

 

[SpeedSleek]

That aside, Corporate Memphis is this generation's clipart. It was cool and useful for 5 seconds, now you eyeroll when you see it because it is considered lazy corpo design, and in 5 years you'll be like, "hey what happened to Corporate Memphis?"

I think what truly scares me is that 20 years down the line we'll have people getting nostalgic for the late 2010's through all of the 2020's.

 

[brentw]

I think what truly scares me is that 20 years down the line we'll have people getting nostalgic for the late 2010's through all of the 2020's.

The year is 2040.

Gen Z dude: Man, remember when we could eat meat and drive cars? Sometimes I wish I could hop into my car and drive out to get a burger, like the old days.

Gen Alpha dude: I don't even know what it's like to drive a car, by the time I was old enough only rich people could afford them. I just wish I could live in a house like the ones in my grandparent's pictures. My PodCo apartment fucking sucks.

Gen Z dude: Hell, even I never had my own house!

 

[WhoGoesThere]

It's notable that corporate memphis is really disappearing quite fast. I barely see it at all anymore.

No shit? What are you seeing it being replaced by out of curiosity? Just last week I saw this put up at bus stop I was at out of town

 

[handoferis]

No shit? What are you seeing it being replaced by out of curiosity? Just last week I saw this put up at bus stop I was at out of town

it's filtering down slowly - big tech have either gone for just photos (hinge dating app is a good example of this, was previously memphis) or more realistic looking flat drawings (look at the facebook 'how we use your data' page for a video with this in, obvs used to be alegria). I don't think they've really figured out anything to replace it with yet, hence the massive non-commital, but I think the trend has moved on, and it's pretty classic for government people to be still using yesterday's news.