![]() ![]() ![]() This interview is from our series Econ Extra Credit with David Brancaccio: Documentary Studies , a conversation about the economics lessons we can learn from documentary films.That means you can easily combine these modifier keys without needing to hold them all down. We’re watching and discussing a new documentary each month. To watch along with us, sign up for our newsletter.Įver notice how a lot of tech companies’ branding has started to look similar? It’s marked by crisp sans-serif fonts, pastel palettes and long-limbed cartoon figures in bright colors - maybe depicting a video chat with a loved one, or a group of software engineers physically building a smartphone app with hard hats and ladders. That playful design style favored by Big Tech behemoths and small startups alike has a name: Corporate Memphis. Mike Merrill, a creative producer in advertising, coined the term several years ago after he kept seeing it cropping up among tech companies. And the phrase took off, as designers catalogued the style’s many varieties and criticized its pervasiveness. “I think a lot of people won’t even notice it. It just blends into the background in a really safe, mildly pleasant, Prozac-design kind of sense,” said Merrill, who is also known for selling shares of his life to investors for $1 each.īut the deeper critique of Corporate Memphis branding, leveled by Merrill and others, is that the friendly, egalitarian world it depicts can be out of step with the reality of the companies that employ it. ![]() “It is all about this idea of, ‘Trust me. “I think it’s a really nefarious way to hide behind visual language.” I’m a trustworthy company.’ And let’s not look behind the curtain and see what’s actually going on,” Merrill told “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio. It’s cartoony, it’s bright blocks of color? The following is an edited transcript of their interview.ĭavid Brancaccio: Tell me about this look, which you see everywhere. It feels almost nostalgic it’s sort of this flat, pastel, very simplified colors and shapes, yet it’s very modern and crisp at the same time. I think a lot of people won’t even notice it. It just blends into the background in a really safe, mildly pleasant, Prozac-design kind of sense.īrancaccio: And you see it everywhere? Now that I started looking, I start seeing it everywhere. Once you start seeing it, you will see it everywhere. I worked in the startup world for a while, and every company, before they get their own unique design, seems to go through a phase of operating with this style.īrancaccio: I mean, you wouldn’t see the U.S. Supreme Court or a private prisons company adopt this look, right? It’s for the tech world or other types of businesses. Merrill: Yeah, I think it’s a very tech-focused trend. I heard it described once as, it sort of represents solved problems. ![]() Like, everything’s OK when you see this design.īrancaccio: All right, so your beef isn’t just that it’s cliche, and no one likes a cliche. But you actually worry that maybe this approach to design makes things look benign when maybe the company underneath could be doing things that are not so warm and fuzzy. Merrill: I think Facebook is probably the biggest example of it. They went through a phase where they were using this style universally. And, you know, they are one of the darkest companies as far as how they’re using that customer data. And it is all about this idea of, “Trust me. I’m a trustworthy company.” And let’s not look behind the curtain and see what’s actually going on. So I think it’s a really nefarious way to hide behind visual language.īrancaccio: Now, I don’t want to be an overbearing cynic here, but branding and logos - do we really expect this stuff to convey truth? I mean, branding is spin on a stick, so we shouldn’t kid ourselves, I guess. I think there’s two uses of this style that you see most often. And that, to me, feels a little deceptive, like they’re trying to hide something - because it’s so generic and it’s so simplified. ![]()
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