Corporate Memphis (alternative names: Alegria Art, Big Tech Art, or Flat Art) is a term used to describe a

flat Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

, geometric art style, widely associated with

Big Tech Big Tech, also known as the Tech Giants, refers to the most dominant companies in the information technology industry, mostly located in the United States. The term also refers to the four or five largest American tech companies, called the Big ...

illustrations in the late 2010s and early 2020s. It has been criticized by some as uninspired or

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

, though some 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 programs, and a nostalgia for midcentury modern illustration. It began to trend in editorial 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 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 The Memphis Group, also known as Memphis Milano, was an Italian design and architecture group founded by Ettore Sottsass. It was active from 1980 to 1987. The group designed postmodern furniture, lighting, fabrics, carpets, ceramics, glass and m ...

, a 1980s design group known for bright colors, childish patterns, and geometric shapes.

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.

Reception

Once Facebook adopted the style, the sudden ubiquity of vector graphics led to a critical backlash. The style has been criticized for being generic, lazy, overused, and attempting to sanitize public perception of big tech companies by presenting

human interaction The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in t ...

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 operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

and

neoliberalism Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...

. Some have argued that, despite the criticism, Corporate Memphis has unexpected depth and variety, and deserves to be understood on its own merits beyond an association with tech dystopias.

References

Illustration Art movements Design Advertising Minimalism {{advertising-stub