Everyone gets “The 90s” look wrong and I hate it
Couple years ago I saw these two board games at the store back to back. Well, not saw them per se, but ya know. Spied them out of the corner of my eye. And for a moment without reading the text, I couldn’t tell you which was which decade at first. Funny. Either they were in a rush to get these out the door or they wanted their throwback trivia game boxes to look uniform. I didn’t think too much of it.
Only, from then on I started seeing it MORE. Every time someone markets a 90s or 80s throwback...
Goddammit they’re identical! What??! How did we let this happen? As a 90s survivor and a designer, this drives me up a wall.
Look, I know I’m late to the party to complain about “the 90s look” when we’re just starting to get sick of the Y2K nostalgia train. But c’mon, the 90s were not The 80s: Part Two™
Trust me when I say that we weren’t all wearing neon trapezoids up until the year 2000. The 90s look being peddled is so specific to the tail end of the 80s and an early early part of the 90s - a part of the 90s when it wouldn’t stop being the 80s. This is Memphis design being conflated with the wrong decade.
Keep reading for a long ass graphic design history lesson and pictures of old soda and fast food.
Specifically, the look is Memphis Milano, self-named by the Italian design house Memphis Group. Starting in the early to mid 80s, they made all sorts of furniture, fabrics and sculptures that were like a Piet Mondrian grid painting under heavy radiation. Their whole deal was defying the standards of existing industrial design up to that point on purpose. Chairs had weird arches, bookcases would be in strange alien colors, unusual materials like plastic or elastic were used in place of metal or wood, that sorta thing.
Memphis quickly became the signature look for the decade. You can tell something’s influenced by Memphis design from it’s telltale trademarks:
Clashing, neon colors.
Use of diametric shapes.
Contrasting patterns like zebra print stripes, confetti squiggles and checkerboards.
It wasn’t long before Memphis Milano-inspired design was everywhere in 80s pop culture:
It was a special time, yes.
I was a kindergartener at the tail end of the 80s, so I knew Memphis mostly through the lens of kids media. Toys, clothes, games, tv shows used it like candy colored catnip. Cable channel Nickelodeon more or less adopted the Memphis aesthetic as their signature in-house style and practically built a monument to it at a Florida theme park:
I think this is why folks mistake what decade Memphis is representative of - 90s staples like Nick, Saved By The Bell, Fresh Prince - they all stayed around much longer than the design trend’s expiration date.
Couple that notion with the fact that companies are slow followers to design trends. Something gets popular and they want to get on the bandwagon? Gotta wait for the ink to dry, gotta wait for the production molds to be made. It would take a few years for them to completely work Memphis outta their system.
Now, this is not to say Memphis is bad! Personally I’m a fan of the aesthetic, if my neon-drenched artwork wasn’t a tip-off already. But it is a trend, and trends never last forever.
So what took the Memphis Milano look down for good? This part’s up for debate, but I personally think it had something to do with this dude:
It’s that grunge music from Seattle that’s so popular with the kids these days dontchaknow.
Once Smells Like Teen Spirit hit in 1991, the Nirvana tone drove the rest of the decade. Clean geometry became weathered, grainy and organic. Bright neon pastels became more bold. Bubblegum pop music sounded fake and manufactured. Attitude and apathy was authentic. Whatever.
Things got grungy. Things got grimy. Olestra was invented.
I think the best way to visualize this transition is how Cherry Coke entered the decade and how it left it:
1992 Memphis on the left, 1998 grunge junkie on the right. Fitting that the 90s would end with a design that looked like Darth Maul’s lungs.
Okay, so what should 90s retro design look like?
Continue on to PART TWO! Spoilers: No VHS filters or vaporwave needed, but maybe bring an antacid.
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It will actually never cease to baffle me that people got so up in arms about the Trickster Mode “Caucasian” bit because “The Kids are Aracial”, and will parrot the point that “The Kids(/Trolls) are Aracial” to hell and back, when like… It’s just not true?
I’m sorry, but you physically cannot have a humanoid character design lack racial characteristics. The only thing you give away by trying to make an “aracial” character design is what you think the racial default is. Considering White Supremacy is the social default in the Western World, more often than not, people will view the “racial default” as white. It lines up with how “white” as an identity works. “White” has never had a set definition, it changes all the time specifically to exclude more and more people- like Jewish people, Italians, et cetera. “White” is defined, historically, as “Lacking Race”, so oftentimes “Aracial” tends to just mean “White”. “Aracial” features always completely exclude Black features, and that’s not by accident.
The character designs in Homestuck have white features. I’m sorry, you’re not convincing me that the Kids are meant to be entirely racially neutral when they’re consistently depicted in the comic as having straight hair and Eurocentric features. The Kids have always been white, it’s just that people view whiteness as the racial default and everything else as of an aberration of that whiteness. Getting mad at the Trickster Mode “Caucasian” bit for “saying the kids are white” or “confirming they are white” is completely unreasonable when they’ve never been depicted as anything other than little white kids by their designs the whole entire time.
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Crazy Coincidences
Main Masterlist Norlestappen Masterlist
Pairing: Mother! Fashion designer!female reader x Lando Norris x Charles Leclerc x Max Verstappen
Warnings: Fluffy,
Summary: You are a designer who hasn't been seen publicly for 5 years, but you still have designs coming out and fashion shows going. No one expects you to return with a baby, let alone 3 other children and a wedding band on your finger. But what no one really expected was for you to return at a Formula Grand Prix.
Requested: NO / yes
There was a rumor that you were seen in the Mclaren garage at Spa.
Before that, it was rumored you were at Mclaren garage in Silverstone.
Rumors of you being at Red Bull for Canada.
Ferrari at Monaco.
Mclaren at Miami.
But it was never confirmed by any garage or person whether it was true.
After the Formula One summer break, you are seen with 4 kids walking into the McLaren garage.
That is the only time you are seen, but someone got a picture as you looked in their direction and were able to get a photo, confirming it was you.
The next day, people are celebrating Lando's second F1 win, but also people are deep-diving into the photo of you.
Many point out that you had a wedding ring on your finger and that even though you didn't know of the photo, you still had the baby in your arms shielded from the public.
Many wonder why you are at a Formula One event as you have never expressed interest in the sport before.
When you are seen walking into the Red Bull garage at the Italian GP with Lando and Charles following behind you, speculations arise as to why.
After the Italian GP, during post-race interviews, Lando and Charles are asked why they are with you, and Max and Checo are asked who you went to see in Red Bull.
Lando and Charles just said that they were helping you and Max and Checo told that you went to see Max.
It wasn't until Singapore that you were seen again, this time with all three drivers, Lando, Max, and Charles, with all four kids.
The oldest is around 5, the next is around 4, and the last is around 2, with the baby looking to be only a few months old.
You were nodding at something Lando said, and his eyes were lit up with adoration.
Lando, Max, and Charles are on the podium together again, and the three are all together when an interviewer catches up with them, asking about you.
The three look at each other, and then Lando goes to the interviewer to answer, "She's our wife, and those are our kids."
Max says, "We didn't feel the need to let everyone know about our personal lives and didn't want to subject our kids to the media so young."
Charles answers with, "We love our fans, but we also love her and out children, and we didn't want the world criticizing our decisions in our life about her."
A/N: Tied for first in this poll
Tags: @poppyflower-22 @samantha-chicago @barcelonaloverf1life @tallrock35 @ellen3101 @llando4norris @mcmuppet @issi-loves-dannyric @hellothere9597
If you want to be removed from a tag list, let me know so I don't keep tagging you. If you are striked through, I don't know if you want to be tagged, but just let me know if you want me to continue or stop
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THOUGHTS I HAD DURING MY MANY RE-WATCHES OF HAZBIN HOTEL & HELLUVA BOSS
Why Vivziepop has an obsession for top hats? No hate, I love the design, just have seen lots of hats
I love that vaggie is the toughest of them all, but she dresses so preppy
Adam gives the same vibe of Andrew Tate (my red flag is that I would Adam anyway)
Charlie deserves the world
I'm afraid that huskerdust could become a bromance (I know it's canon, but I'm scared anyway) I hope we will see more of them in the second season
Vox gives the same vibe of a friend of mine
I hate Val, but his VA did an incredible work, to me he sounds really natural
Alastor has a Karen haircut
The girls who fancy Alastor, are the same who fancy Dr. Thredson from AHS
Emily deserves more credit
I don't like Lilith
I like to think the Vs are all in a poly relationship with eachother
Sir Pentious is the coolest dude (would)
I don't know how to feel about Nyfti
The Italian VA is done so amazingly I prefer it to the English version, I love the original, but this time, Italians did the best
If you watch it while high (I'm not suggesting anything and I discourage any sort of consumption) the soft music as a very low soundtrack in every scene is so silly I love it
For the Italians: Val ed Enzo Miccio sono la stessa persona
Rdj and Vox are the same person
It breaks me that Alastor claims he has to go to the tailor meanwhile he always went around with a worn out jacket
Alastor announcing a podcast is like those old TV stars opening their podcast (I can only find Italian examples, so for my people: come il poretcast)
Stolas such a himbo I LOVE HIM (he's so me I can't)
Kid Stolas is soooo lovely, so squishy I wanna hug him
I love that there are a lot of correlations between Carmilla Carmine and Vaggie
Carmilla Carmine is one of those mothers who make videos of themselves with montages of tiger and lions defending their kids
Blitzø smash
I love that both Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel have such display of healthy relationships and relationships that grow through time, like vaggie and Charlie, Fizzarolli and Asmodeus, Moxxie and Millie, also the dynamics of Father and daughter
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