Do I just have bad taste?  

Hello M_ Anderson..
It all depends on what floats your boat doesnt it?..if we all liked the same things life would be even more rubbish than it is.I sometimes like Memphis and its simplicity myself and at other times it just reminds me of childrens building blocks,and trying to be different just for the sake of it.On the whole i think i respect it but i wouldnt devote much of my time to it. That ok?.

Hi Martin,
...well i guess you know what I am going to write. But let's try it anyway. I am not a fan of any form of post-modernism. Not that I am not sharing some of the concerns that were raised by them, but I am still convinced that it was just a matter of time for modernism to enlarge the notion of function, from the "utility" to "function" and from function into a large spectrum of functions including emotional, including references to the past, including specificity of place and culture etc. Unfortunately both architecture and design became media-driven and in doing so they had to play by the media rules: "...a new magazine cover every month..." in that context one can not raise more sophisticated problems nor is their any space for subtility in the chosen solutions. Nothing happens in our world unless it makes a big splash, unless there is a Whow-factor, if possible larger than life. Even illness has to take on epidemic proportions in order to be noticed. I for one...and a few others regret this, but it will take time, much more than my own lifetime or what is left of it to change this or see it change. Ettore S. understood this. He is too close to the italian design media, not to understand this to it's full extend and so he knew very well what to do. Of course it came with the appropriate rethoric about being sesitive to "the people's" taste, common bright colors, the way "people" like them etc. Of course the last ones to understand what was going on or to embrace the trend were "people". But there are enough musea with design collections to make it worth your while to build 100 pieces of anything (not unlike "droog") and off you go. The media are happy, the musea are happy and you are happy because you did not want to serve "the people" you just wanted your name in and on the magazines and in museum collections.
The problem with the kind of talented people like Ettore S. is that they do it so well and so the products they make are beautyful! We might, especially 50 years later disagree with Le Corbusier, V.d. Rohe ar any other talented architect, the problem is that what they did was so good!...and convincing. Unfortunately the rethoric becomes a way of justifying anithing that even remotly resembles the "original". In time that is what destroys any movement. Not the lack of contents but the formalistic use of it, especially when done without talent.
Talented people on the other hand seem to get away with....Look at Luigi Colani. By the time our calender turned into the seventies he had done more projects and more organic forms than all Karim Rashid's sketch books together will ever produce. He was working completely un-synchronized with his time but...it so well done, so convincing that you almost believe in it. So enjoy Etorre S. and why not, Michele De Lucchi, just because it is so beautiful....

in damn n°9
(that's a designmagazine) an editor writes something, based upon what is happening nowadays, but it follows a bit koen's way of thinking about memphis, and i agree. a very good text; some extracts:
"in blueprint 247, jasper morrison complained that designs are being produced for magazines, not for people. roughly translated he states that most mags like to show quirky designed stuff without checking the functionality of these products. he fears that one day this rather irresposible behaviour of the media will have its affect on future generations, when most people won't even know anymore that design should be functional in the first place and eventually just become a major source of pollution"
Damn answer:
...we embrace good designed objects and as well we all like a godd laugh...it all depends on how you look at things: there is design and there is design...and let's face it , a good laugh is never a source of pollution. moreover it is a sign of the times. just lokk at the blurred boundaries between design and art...was functionality the first issue for rietveld to create his zigzag chair in hte thirties?...is it about concept or comfort?...so what's the big fuzz? it is not about functionality: it is about surprise, originality and improvisation.it is about perception...
nevertheless i agree with morrison; the word 'design' is often misabused. Maybe because it has not really a solid meaning; not like black is black, no question about it more like violet (or is it purple?) And way to many designers are just making some arty farty stuff. Coming back to memphis; it really was a big deal; one of the last 'groups' that designed in architecture, in products, in industrial products: remember the eighties (the bright colors etc) it really fitted in that era, personally i would let it there...and move on. See it like a child; when you were kid you didn't like sprouts and now as adult we are eating oysters, frogs, ... taste evolves.

Prepare yourselves for a bit of rambling.
It's so nice to hear your thoughts.
Surely all the Memphis stuff ended up in magazines right away, because it's the magazines' job to pick up whatever is going on. And here was something new and exciting opposed to a slumbering world of plain interior design drowning in black, off-white and earthly colours (very simplified, I know). Because if there's something the Memphis stuff demands (besides your money!), it's attention. I'm sure they all had a lot of fun designing, but the motive behind, their agenda, was serious. And yet today, the Memphis movement still stands out as a sort of nervous but creative tick. Just like Sottsass intended to. Yes, it was short-lived but his point was proven. I really admire that. I'm mainly attracted to the bold colours and it's ridiculous, yet well thought-out shapes and simple functions. It's seems forever refreshing. It was and still is very strange, rebellious and provocative (sexy?) and that's a label I'm immediately attracted by to, he he. "Super Lamp" by Martine Bedine is one of my favourite Memphis pieces. I must have it at some point.
It's also especially interesting what you both write about designing for magazines. I read a lot of these magazines and often I sit and think "Damn, why didn't I think of that" or "Hey, that's my idea!" 🙂 ... but almost everytime I go to a shop and see one of these new and "fantastic" chairs, lamps, flowerpots etc. from the magazins for the first time, I get so disappointed. Because they do present themselves very well on the glossy pages in the right enviroment at a comfortable distance and with a accompanying praising text. It so easy to be seduced. It's actually mainly the lack of craftmanship that annoys me. I don't know whether it's the designers that don't care or the manufactures or both, I just always think it could have been done better.
That's why I've decided years ago to never design a dining chair. I know it's just about any creative person's dream to design a dining chair but not mine. Too many people are designing too many chairs (Karim Rashid, please stop). So I concentrate on mainly tables and sofas. That's where I believe I can make a difference, esp. here in Denmark.
Luigi Colani is superb! I'm not a big fan of his plastic furniture (I don't like plastic) but esp. his cars, airplains, trucks, motorcycles and boats win me over everytime. I wonder why we don't hear more about him. Or see more of his products. Were they only produced in small quantities? He's seems quite overlooked. I mean, his "design language" esp. within the transport-section is decades ahead of its time but perhaps that's the problem? ... he's too far ahead for us to see any sense in it?

I fully recognize that...
I fully recognize that Sottsass was an important designer. There are even a couple of pieces I would consider classics. However, the Memphis aesthetic makes me want to spout a nosebleed. It really does hurt my stomach to see an entire interior of it. But then again I feel the same about Panton's interiors. I like certain individual designs of his, but a little goes a very long way ... so an entire interior is out of the question! I will say I could take a Panton interior before a Memphis interior in its entirety.

Memphis and so on
As a point of departure I think it represents a larger abhorence of silence and contemplation. Modernism adressed the modern dilemma with which we still wrestle. Era modern design sought to help us adapt to the world in a thoughtful manner. That effort wasn't fully realized before the markets became bored and frightened, sprouting (as others have pointed out) a production frenzy so playfully irrelevant it was hard to notice the level of ironic detachment seeping into our process, homes and way of life. Memphis was the MTV of designing, short lived instantly gratifying "stuff". And as a type of temporary distraction maybe it works. But to value it...IMO is wasteful. Nobody behind it really cared for it and it shows in how it was built and sold. I would suggest throwing it all away were it not so uniquely harmful to the environment. I think we should send it all to our favorite state of Texas and create a toxic mortuary noone will visit - it will scare even the Gulf hurricanes away.

overintellectualization?
Sometimes the discussions, riveting though they are, make my head hurt ;-( Do we tend to over-intellectualize the concepts of "modern" and "good"? Modern is what's genuinely new good is what you like. Now, where did I put the gin ...

Send it to Texas, yes, or...
Send it to Texas, yes, or Oklahoma. You hit the nail on the head. The Memphis Movement got his own jet airplane, the Memphis Movement is a millionaire.

your headache
I believe gin, so heavy in sugars, is the most headache producing of all the spirits, so if I was you, I would look elsewhere for comfort.

Minnie Mouse has got it all sewn up, ...
... she gets more fan mail than the Pope
10cc sometime in the 70's

It would be harsh for any of ...
It would be harsh for any of us to say that you have bad taste because we don't really know what other styles you like but personally for me, the Memphis movement is one of the worst and most self-endulgent design styles ever! I'm still not sure if this movement was the designers' idea of parodying design, deliberately creating a horrible, eye-sore aesthetic but using their design reputations and fame to fool us into thinking it was good design when they all probably laughed in private. That's what I really think about the Memphis style.

Is one enough?
Are six too many? Having survived a Memphis/Alessi phase back in the 80's I've come to appreciate the Memphis pieces when used as a solitary, humorous exclamation point (as opposed to a more critical part of speech like a 'Verb'). A room full of it and I think most would go quite mad... but the right piece in the right room and ummmm like a maraschino cherry on top of a scrumptious sundae ... can't ... stop ... the similes...argh.......

I'm just a simple country girl...
Gimme straight lines, a sphere, or equilateral triangle some honest materials that I can pronounce the composition of and I'm happy. All them swirly, whirly gewgaws just done confuse me.