When you see these types of images on a website how does it make you feel? That's the question
that I asked my fellow designers and the people of Twitter. The most common answers were: basic,
generic, corporate. These guys are everywhere from Airbnb; to birth control; to CPR-a-thons?;
crypto; dissent gin; e-commerce; Facebook; Google; Healthcare; increasing energy bills;
job ads; craft mac and cheese; lyft; marketing ads; Norwegian meat snacks;
Opticians; the pharmacy; quotes on Instagram; renting; Spotify;
trains; upwork; vemno; Wacom tablet; Xbox game; YouTube and even the zoo.
Corporate art. Big tech or corporate memphis. How did these bendy, bright, disproportionate
beady pinpoint eyed geometric flat styles become the comic sans, the YouTuber ukulele background
music, the Ed Sheeran of the illustration world? This video was sponsored by Babbel
Hello it's Divya G what does the G stand for? The G stands for guess when this picture was
designed? Three, two... 1950s. The origins of flat design surpasses the birth of my nose bridge. But
modern styles has its roots in um guess? Yeah it's modernism. And some people believe it to
reminisce the Memphis group of the 80s with their bold colors very unconventional form.
Current illustrations I don't think that there's one definite origin but there are some big boys in
the game for example uh slacks illustrator Alice Lee who took inspiration from the whimsicality of
animation and publishing to create an image for a slack that was warm friendly and not
stock. And then came Facebook's illustration family. It's scalable they said! Inoffensive!
Cheap! Embrace vector based, embrace the digital era... and boom! I'm in love with the shape of you
said basically every single tech start up and conglomerates. And like Newton's law of motion
when things gain traction so does the opposite action of hating it or something. There's even a
Reddit thread just dedicated to being a hater but why though? For why? One of the issues that gets
brought up with this type of illustration is how utopian the characters feel when you compare that
to the backdrop of the realities of the practices of these companies. For Facebook a design company
called Buck came up with Alegria which is Spanish for Joy. If you'd like to know that without me
having to translate it for you then you can use Babbel who are the sponsors for this video. Are
you sick and tired of being an embarrassment to your family because you only know how to speak
English when more than half the world knows how to speak more than two languages and you don't? What?
Can't relate? Well now you can not do that because Babbel teaches you how to have actual real world
conversations with lessons from expert teachers in your chosen language using very robust and
proven methods. For example British education system sucks so I'm trying to learn Spanish
again and you can choose your way of learning like booking a live class with Spanish teachers,
quizzes or you can even speak using their speech recognition to give you feedback on your accent
so that you can not do this: tell me about the fillings that you've got a peeko de gal low which
is basically a salsa. And they're kind enough to provide me with a link which is in the description
for you to use you can click on and get 65 off your subscription so thank you for supporting my
sponsors which helps to directly support this channel. Some people think that using these
illustrations can be a form of a dark pattern which is used to lure you into like this false
sense of security and influences you to perform certain actions. 2017 is when these illustration
styles were like really at their saturation point for popularity and these are times when the world
actively knows this scandals going on own with big tech companies think Facebook Cambridge analytical
Scandal, data breaches, sexism, exploitative labor practices... just to name a few. You think it's
a fair argument to say people are a little bit wary um of trusting like happy-go-lucky joyful
images. Just to illustrate these illustrations powers of just how like utopian it can be even
I had a go by translating some books that cover really heavy topics into this art style just to
show you just how like weird. There's also the issue of diversity. Oversized limbs and
non-representational skin colors help them instantly achieve a universal feel. Nothing
says representation like representing no one. I feel like people don't just want inclusivity
we want something that feels honest. I think companies are very scared to offend. If compare
this approach to airbnb's illustrator Jennifer Hom: "when a person appears as an outlined white
space while their hair and clothing have color it's easy to assume that they're Caucasian" and
I personally think the same goes for blue skinned t-shirt wearing characters. And so
for Jennifer her goal was to move the needle of representation in Tech using like real photos
for inspiration for the illustration. Now I'm not saying that there's like no space to be stylistic,
to be a bit more abstract. And you might think Divya what? No one's gonna spend like that long
analyzing the illustrations nor do companies like kind of care or have the budget or time for it so
they resort to like libraries and stuff like man's not trying to put the sign up page illustration
in the Natural History Museum.... although that wouldn't be the first thing that they've stolen
been put in there. I'd argued that everything in design is intentional. Design and marketing has a
strong psychological impact on how you perceive feel and interact with a product a service or
a brand and also how you perceive yourself in that space as well like who is this brand? What
are their core values? And am I a part of their clientele? With illustration there's a chance
to kind of challenge biases. Like I know art is subjective some people just generally they
don't like the expressionless like gangly arm tiny head on a big body looking like pip looking- but I
think most people don't actually hate that art or the style or you know the underpaid illustrators
who are forced by the corporate while to keep on churning this out. When you look at the style just
by itself there's definitely iterations which convey meaning, they create a visual language
for the brand and illustrations help people to process texts, make pages more exciting and
visually engaging in a relatively easier and quick time scale. But it's been nearly half a decade
since the peak of saturation and things start to look a little bit stock photo-y. I think the real
issue that people have with corporate Memphis is what it represents - homogeny. Facebook becomes
YouTube becomes Instagram becomes TikTok. In a world of oligopolies there's a real like shiver
or taste for things that go a little bit outside the norm so think BeReal promising authenticity
instead of social media facade or Wordles limit of one game a day you know in dopamine
seeking infested society. Or this boom and wanting to support small businesses. And I think that's
why these illustrations feel soulless so stale for some people. In the quest for efficiency we lose
some of the novelty and I think especially for art we really like to embrace difference a lot
more. When you think of these images the brands that are adopted and the context of a society,
in turn it makes some of these images feel a little bit like it's just been churned out in
an assembly line . But does it matter? What is next as we shift more towards web 3.0. Will it
encompass more texture? Would it be more dynamic motion design? More 3D? More meta? Or will it be
more about the product - a connection to real people again? What do you guys think? Is it
time to stop needlessly hating the art style and the artist? yeah oh my God you made it to the
end thank you so much for being here with me I'm studies show that most of you who are watching my
videos aren't subscribed blah blah I make videos on the topic of design books and social commentary
and I'll see you guys next time hug Time Escape now are you still have your chance okay aha
how do people in 2023 too I'm living in the future. Ed Sheeran no hate to you
you just everywhere man