#90s 1990s

[comfortfoodcontent]

1991 Seinfeld TV Guide ad

#seinfeld #tv guide #1991 #90s 1990s #90s #1990s #90s vibes #magazine ads #90s tv

[throwbackblr]

#barbie #barbie memes #memes #meme #margot robbie #margot robie barbie #90s #1990s #2020s #kane52630 #posts

[53v3nfrn5]

Fruit-Shaped Bus Stops (1990) Location: Nagasaki, Japan

#fruitcore #nagasaki #japan #travel #places #locations #strawberry #melon #lemon #tomato #foodcore #aesthetic #90s #1990 #retro japan #citycore #silly #sillycore #cute #cutecore #kawaii #kawaiicore #canteloupe #landscapes #cottagecore #gardencore #gnomecore #architecture #sillyposting

[danniexdarkox]

real.

#90s #goth subculture #90s aesthetic #horror #horror film #horror aesthetic #90s horror #1990s #1990s horror #2000s horror #2000s aesthetic #early 2000s #90s goth #1990s goth #2000s goth #goth aesthetic #gothic #goth girl #goth #horror memes

[gooberscollage]

Some Wonderful Ditto’s from Magical Pokémon journey by Yumi Tsukirino

#1990s #90s #ninties #ditto #pokèmon #pokemon #manga #manga panel #comic #nostalgia #Yumi tsukirimo #magical pokemon journey #meme #funny

[389]

Hideo Kojima (1990)

#hideo kojima #eraserhead #david lynch #90s #1990s #u

[thisisrealy2kok]

Power Mac G4 (1999-2004)

#90s #2000s #1990s #00s #advertising #apple #computer #cyber #cybercore #cyber y2k #design #moniter #objects #power mac g4 #tech #techcore #technology #y2k #y2k aesthetic #y2k design #y2k futurism

[goobersplat]

An anon asked for more VHS stickers so here you go!

1 and 2

#png #transparent #kidcore #nostalgia #nostalgiacore #vintage #vhs #1980s #80s #1990s #90s #ninties #eighties #vhs tape #stickers #stickercore #transparent stickers #horror #horrorcore #analog #aesthetic

[nineties-effect]

#90s #90s aesthetic #90s vibes #1990s #90s style #90's anime #Burn-Up W #1996

[inthedarktrees]

A mock funeral held for Laura Palmer in Tokyo on February 23, 1992.

#laura palmer #twin peaks #japan #twinpeaksedit #90s #1990s #funeral #tokyo #gif

[comfortfoodcontent]

Susan Holmes

ELLE FRANCE 9th September 1991

''des Costumes bien cravates''

Photographer: Walter Chin

Stylist: Lena Kordic

#susan holmes #elle #elle france #1991 #90s fashion #fashion #clothing #90s 1990s #90s vibes #photography #walter chin #models #90s models #supermodels

[throwbackblr]

#spongebob #90s #memes #2000s #spongebob squarepants #nicktoons #nickelodeon #90s nickelodeon #90s nostalgia #1990s #posts #meme #kane52630

[thequeensownketchup]

Wanting top surgery so I can sleep face down, shirtless in boxers like the lazy teenage boys at the start of 90s films

#trans #trans masc #top Surgery #transgender #queer #gay #lgbt #non binary #90s #1990s

[vintagehomecollection]

Traditional Country Style, 1991

#vintage #vintage interior #1990s #90s #interior design #conservatory #greenhouse #sunroom #wicker #house plants #terra cotta #tile #birdcage #traditional #country #style #home #architecture

[thisfilmisnotyetrated]

JAVIER BARDEM in JAMÓN, JAMÓN (dir. Bigas Luna, 1992)

#don't mind me i'm just reposting an old post of mine (upgrading it too i hope since i do better gifs now) #javier bardem #jamon jamon #jamón jamón #bigas luna #filmgifs #filmedit #cinemagifs #cinemaedit #moviegifs #movieedit #dilfsource #dilfgifs #dilfedit #holesrus #dailyflicks #** #1990s #90s cinema #spanish cinema

[waffled0g]

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.

#90s #1990s #memphis milano #grunge #everything you know is wrong #y2k