Stream of Consciousness...Imagining a Decade

Taking my life in my hands, I've gone '80's again! Actually, after last night's blog entry, this week we've decided to use an inspiration photo that we've taken to define a movement, decade or an aesthetic we love. It's a stream of consciousness that we're having fun with, so stay with us!

Components of Monday night's dinner become inspiration

Frank Gehry's Venice Beach House, 1986, via GreatBuildings.com

James Brown, Self Portrait in Red, 1983 via Artnet

Memphis Milano Retrospective

A really timeless lesson in branding and creating a design-centric culture at the Menkin's Esprit

A Dark Secret Passion: Design of the '80's

The Standard, NYC

A fantastic knife set I won at Housing Works (auction)

Hartford, CT

While one of us is asleep early with a headache, the other will indulge a secret passion that has been hiding just under the surface for quite sometime--Memphis and 1980's design! Fun, color-saturated and very relevant today, Memphis and 80's design means movement and experimentation. Influenced by Bauhaus, Constructivism, Primitivism and Art Deco, the designs (and unfortunately the worst) of the decade are almost instantly recognizable, as are those inspired by the time...see for yourself:

Forrest Myers, The Wall, 1973. Though early for Memphis and the 80's, I think it epitomizes the colors and geometry of the decade. Broadway and Houston, NYC.

[1]

George Sowden clocks for Memphis

Marco Zanini Colorado teapot for Memphis, 1983

Lacoste sheets currently in the Macy's Herald Square window

[2]

Nathalie Du Pasquier (a favorite!) lamp, Objects of the Electronics Age

Scholastic Building on Broadway, NYC

Peter Shire table via Manishtama

[3]

Ingas Sempe for Ligne Roset in the Soho showroom

Playgound on Houston

Du Pasquier for Objects of the Electronics Age

Houston and Wooster, NYC....I wish they'd try to keep this up! Great building.