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Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

wired.co.uk

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Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#41

Post by bitwize »

quelsolaar wrote: post #16

I think its interesting that the flat look was pioneered by Microsoft going back to the days of the Zune2 and later lumia phones that had the first Metro interface. Then google and Apple and everyone else started following. People don't think of Microsoft (and especially Zune...) as a leader in design, but I think they have had a big impact on the industry, and deserves some recognition.

After Windows 95 came out, fucking everyone used Franklin Black in their advertisements. I saw it everywhere -- online, on billboards, in television advertisements. Microsoft may have the aesthetic tastes of a lame, "greetings fellow young people" dad, but they were the biggest name in the tech field... and that meant people copied their design language in the hopes of seeming equally big and important.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#42

Post by ryanwhitney »

sweetheart wrote: post #7
michaelhoffman wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for answering the most obvious question anyone would have about this phenomenon that was inexplicably totally missing from the article itself.

It isn’t; they mention it.

Though, fairly buried after using the term constantly throughout the beginning of the piece!

Didn't find it myself so I came back to HN and saw GP comment. Then cmd+f for "italian" to find it in the article.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#43

Post by kingsuper20 »

Thanks for the link, I had no idea that it had a name. The folks on the site that starts with 4 and ends with chan have done some funny parodies of it.

You know, it takes some real work to do a Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman ad. There's a kind of artistic malaise in the modern era.

Admittedly, you see that kind of look in vintage travel and airline posters.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#44

Post by rsj_hn »

userbinator wrote: post #34
nostromo wrote: post #19

It’s largely driven by corporations trying to be as broad and inoffensive as possible. Not sure what skin color to use? Make them blue. Are your depictions of humans too thin, or too ableist? Make them misshapen blobs so nobody can tell. Not sure how to include non-binary representation? Just make them all genderless.

It's so inoffensive that it has become offensive to me, with an "evil megacorp" association.

There used to be true artistry and celebration of beauty in corporate advertising. Look at the works of Toulouse-Lautrec or Alphonse Mucha. But no college kid is going to be putting up posters of these misshapen flat people in their college dorm.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#46

Post by bitwize »

lainga wrote: post #3

The name refers to how it resembles the work of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group

Tim Burton's movies often have aesthetic mini-manifestos embedded in them. For example, Beetlejuice represented the reverse of the classic "ghost story", one in which the ghosts were sweet, earnest, and identifiable while the living people were horrid and monstrous. So for the Maitlands, Burton chose the aesthetic of their traditional Victorian Connecticut home with all its understated ornateness. The building has "character", which the young couple wish to preserve.

The Deetzes (except for Lydia) are represented by... Memphis. And the fact that they strip the home down and completely remodel it into a Memphis mishmash indicates how horrible and destructive they are.

That said, OG Memphis at least has an element of fun and funkiness to it. Think the opening titles of Saved by the Bell. Corporate Memphis is about as funky as the KPMG theme song: https://youtu.be/NCvKXgp-Awo

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#47

Post by Lammy »

blululu wrote: post #22

The trend is real but it is also pretty innocuous. I know that design people think that these things influence collective consciousness in a deep way but really it is just another cog in the wheel. In my personal experience, the primary reason that design teams prefer this style is that it is able to clearly represent a diverse and inclusive audience. Inclusivity and diversity are very important goals for most Americ…

It lets companies look diverse without being diverse, yeah.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#48

Post by sidpatil »

Lammy wrote: post #26
quelsolaar wrote: post #16

I think its interesting that the flat look was pioneered by Microsoft going back to the days of the Zune2 and later lumia phones that had the first Metro interface. Then google and Apple and everyone else started following. People don't think of Microsoft (and especially Zune...) as a leader in design, but I think they have had a big impact on the industry, and deserves some recognition.

I think you can probably trace some influence even further back to webTV. Check out its flat "10-foot UI" from 1999: https://youtu.be/eHJN9cMo4P4?t=156 Microsoft's UltimateTV set-top-box hardware group got folded into the Xbox division in 2002: https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Microsoft-to-Eliminate-TV-D... And then in 2006 (per Wikipedia), "Xbox 360 overseer J Allard ran the [Toshiba Gigabeat 1089] project, codename…

> Check out its flat "10-foot UI" from 1999

That doesn't look flat whatsoever. There are plenty of three-dimensional layout elements in that UI.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#49

Post by asperous »

mbesto wrote: post #33

> “From a design point of view, it’s pretty lazy,” says Hurley. I love designers criticizing design used for business. It rarely incorporates any perspective on business objectives. As long as the design is achieving its goal then who cares?

Because they are professionals. Software engineers, lawyers, doctors... skilled people who have creative control often put pride into their work as a means of expressing their talent and enthusiasm, even if it doesn’t make a direct tangible difference.
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