Corporate Memphis, commonly referred to as Alegria art, is an art style named after the Memphis Group that features flat areas of color and geometric elements. Widely associated with

Big Tech Big Tech, also referred to as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans, is a collective term for the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. The label draws a parallel to similar classifications in other industries, such as "Big Oi ...

illustrations in the late 2010s and early 2020s, it has been met with a polarized response, with criticism focusing on its use in sanitizing corporate communication, as well as being seen as visually offensive, insincere, pandering and over-saturated. Other illustrators have defended the style, pointing at what they claim to be its art-historical legitimacy.

Origins

Flat art developed out of the rise of

vector graphic Vector graphics are a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display ...

programs, and a

nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek language, Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word me ...

for

mid-century modern Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture and urban development that was present in all the world, but more popular in North America, Brazil and Europe from roughly 1945 to 197 ...

illustration. It began to trend in

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...

illustration and especially the tech industry, which relied on simple, scalable illustrations to fill white space and add character to apps and web pages. The style was widely popularized when

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

introduced Alegria, an illustration system commissioned from design agency Buck Studios and illustrator Xoana Herrera in 2017. The name "Corporate Memphis" originated from the title of an Are.na board that collected early examples, and is a reference to the Memphis Group, a 1980s design group known for bright colors, childish patterns, and geometric shapes. The style itself was inspired by a synthesis of elements spanning the 20th-century, including the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style of the 1920s, futurism in interior design from the

Atomic Age The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, The Gadget at the '' Trinity'' test in New Mexico on 16 July 1945 during World War II. Although nuclear chain r ...

, and color and patterns from the Pop Art movement.

Visual characteristics

Common motifs are flat human characters in action, with disproportionate features such as long and bendy limbs, small torsos, 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, though some artists working in the style opt for more realistic skin colors and features to show diversity. Corporate Memphis is materially quick, cheap and easy to produce, and thus appealing to companies; programs such as

Adobe Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and Computer-aided design, design software developed and marketed by Adobe Inc., Adobe. Originally designed for the Apple Inc., Apple Mac (computer), Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began ...

can be used to produce such designs rapidly.

Reception and use

Once Facebook had adopted the style, the sudden ubiquity of vector graphics led to a critical backlash. The style has been criticized professionally and popularly (including in myriad

internet memes An Internet meme, or meme (, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through social media platforms. Internet memes manifest in a variety of formats, including images, v ...

) for being overly minimalistic, generic, lazy, overused, and attempting to sanitize public perception of big tech companies by presenting

human interaction In social psychology, an interpersonal relation (or interpersonal relationship) describes a social association, connection, or affiliation between two or more people. It overlaps significantly with the concept of social relations, which are ...

in utopian optimism. Criticism of the art style is often rooted in larger anxieties about the creative industry under

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and

neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...

. Others have argued that Corporate Memphis deserves to be understood on its own merits separate from the corporations which regularly employ it. Writing in ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', Jen Gerson criticized the new 2023

Canadian passport A Canadian passport () is a passport issued to citizens of Canada. It enables the bearer to enter or re-enter Canada freely; travel to and from other countries in accordance with visa requirements; facilitates the process of securing assistan ...

design by likening it to the Corporate Memphis art style.

References

{{Western art movements Illustration Art movements Design Advertising Minimalism 21st century in art

Origins

Visual characteristics

Reception and use

See also

References