I'm writing my dissertation on the visual aspeacts of the 80s Memphis Design Movement and I'd love to know any information anyopne has or any opinions on said movement from those who lived thought it.
Ash Frank Ash, this should help. Let me know if you need additional images.
1)__Railway applications - Wheel-sets and bogies & wheels - A PDF download...
https://srbcargo.rs/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/006.pdf
2)__ResearchGate Article titled, "A new technique of "first & second limits" for wagon maintenance in railway tracks consisting of sharp curves based on the empirical study of wheel wear"
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320058994_A_new_technique_of_the_first_and_second_limits_for_wagon_maintenance_in_railway_tracks_consisting_of_sharp_curves_based_on_the_empirical_study_of_wheel_wear
3)__ Figure 8 - The profiles and measurements.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320058994_A_new_technique_of_the_first_and_second_limits_for_wagon_maintenance_in_railway_tracks_consisting_of_sharp_curves_based_on_the_empirical_study_of_wheel_wear/figures?lo=1
Ash Frank Ash, I apologize!! - - I pasted unrelated info into you Memphis Design question by mistake. I'll add a better response tomorrow.
Ash Frank Ash, sorry this is so late. ---First a link to a 2021 New York Times article; “How the Memphis Design Movement Made a Comeback”
Please excuse the long link. Its on way I know to share it to other countries. (let me know if it fails)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/style/memphis-design-movement.html?unlocked_article_code=dwDkV5JNK-ZGCP9zotk2xT0t3C-dxvg5vsWthG7bD1ZmaQk2QgNwodqkFcH284zIcX5fdhP6MsRXd7W10OIdFrQk_E9YLpf2SEZ7FBrOvjGvzqOqLErJK8UjyPOd_yu2lf7PGF9qvGIG08Xi7IQjd763t7zwk9Q6Z0UMh2KIV0DR06GTmLhn_T1Z65GwhxmCeqiRK2pom2D4RzlXHWUI03v97AlGgCEZ-01fcaOOE0fnINmme570GC_HO-oA7DWZsdg7zZ8dnL2BxRIoycNeU5KhZB6EUOwzo0756dtyB0nllmhO39_TGz9nNrou4UjnM1XejdoNaOM0k37umqqh&smid=url-share
Memphis design first arrived in the US when our interiors and furnishings where modern and clean. Due in no small part to the design ideas and work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer and the the father and son Saarinens, Knoll, Ray and Charles Eames, and both Albers.
Memphis Design arrived in US at a time when most of the homes and offices that cared about design were composed with neutral colors. Color was an accent not a theme. From the upheaval of ideas about art, music and design in the late 1960's it took 30 years before we saw it incorporated into daily life. - To put this in perspective, we didn't paint our walls with color until the 1990's. Before then it was tinted neutrals.
To me personally, at the time, Memphis Design didn’t work in the US. And the revival came off as an awkward idea. Awkward as in it it was an interesting diversion but felt more out of place in our culture now than the first time around.
Between late 60's and mid 90's US design was being upended by ideas coming from the California artists and designers (southwest coast of US). Plus coming influences of music and new ideas in graphic design. Our sense of art and design had been more insular. But fashion design introduced us to other design from around the globe.
In the US we have 3 traditional centers of furniture design; one each for east central and west parts of US. Memphis Design was exhibited but didn't find commercial and corporate buyers. It was the exhibit everyone came to see but few "bought-into" the look.
Instead the US responded to new visual ideas in graphic and fashion design. Along with music that was how the majority of US people broadened our ideas of other forms of design.
I was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (near New York city) and watched our architecture shift from modern to the post-modern building style & embellishments of Robert Venturi and his wife Denise Scott Brown.
When Memphis Design arrived I saw in our art magazines and first thought it was “Memphis” as in from Memphis, Tennessee. It reminded me of the free-forms of graffiti and west coast “surf” style.
In general, we loved seeing and talking about it; but liked it better if it belonged to someone else. My opinion; we liked it as an addition but not an everyday items. Like an “accent" piece.
It was reviewed and shown in many US magazines and design showrooms but overshadowed by way too many competing ideas. -- However, to me, it didn’t fit with US design. Even the recent revival didn’t seem to work. Its hard to explain. To me it made perfect sense in Italian and Greek culture. Possibly Central and South America. Less in Asian and North America.
I'd sum it up saying Memphis Design is intriguing. And did well explaining itself. But missed being something that engaged us beyond the initial intrigue. Personally, I didn't like it. And liked it less the 2nd time.
Lee Clawson thank you for this information, it helped quite a bit. Can you tell me what you were doing at the time when Memphis first was seen in art magazines?
Could I also use this personal information within my presentation and dissertation as a viewpoint from a person at that time, it would be a fantastic help.
Thank you
Ash Frank ash, whatever I send you can use. I'll write again on Monday. -- also, I'm looking for an architecture style (pseudo-post-modern) that had pediments that remind me of Memphis ideas.
Ash Frank Ash, you'll be receiving a ResearchGate "message" from me with an attached ZIP file named Memphis Design Notes. And yes, 3+ months late.
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