Style combination · Contrasts

Afrofuturist Design × Corporate Memphis

Corporate Memphis flattens people into anonymous blobs; Afrofuturism insists on specific, dignified, heroic Black figures.

From the research on Afrofuturist Design

Mix them and make something Afrofuturist Design Corporate Memphis

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Corporate Memphis, their arrangement from Corporate Memphis, the finish from Afrofuturist Design. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Afrofuturist Design Corporate Memphis

Type from Afrofuturist Design: Hand-lettering
Geometric sans
Colour from Afrofuturist Design: Jewel & metallic
Dark ground

Corporate Memphis avoids dark ground: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Form from Corporate Memphis: Distortion & exaggeration
Stylised figuration
Composition from Corporate Memphis: Isolated object
Generous white space
Surface from Afrofuturist Design: Chrome & 3D render
Painterly brushwork

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Afrofuturist Design

New

Ojuju, standing in for Wakandan script (Nsibidi-derived, Black Panther, 2018)

Text · Corporate Memphis

The flat vector illustration style that became the default visual voice of big tech in the late 2010s: faceless, ethnically non-specific figures with elongated limbs and tiny heads, drawn in bright flat colour among blobs, leaves and confetti. Codified in Buck's Alegria system for Facebook (2017) and spread by open libraries such as unDraw and Humaaans, it was later named, half-mockingly, after the Memphis Group.

Hanken Grotesk; Corporate Memphis used Circular and Airbnb Cereal

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Afrofuturist Design, with a counter-accent from Corporate Memphis. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Afrofuturist Design Corporate Memphis

#0b0a1a ground · 36%
#d4a017 ink · 14%
#c2185b accent · 18%
#ffc857 accent · 14%
#00a6a6 accent · 10%
#6c63ff accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0b0a1a;
  --ink: #d4a017;
  --accent-1: #c2185b;
  --accent-2: #ffc857;
  --accent-3: #00a6a6;
  --accent-4: #6c63ff;
  --font-display: "Ojuju", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Hanken Grotesk", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Afrofuturist Design: Afrofuturism is a self-authored vision of Black futures that draws on meaning-bearing symbols (Adinkra, Nsibidi, Kemetic and textile motifs) tied to specific peoples. Use glyphs for what they mean rather than as generic 'tribal' texture, and commission, credit or collaborate with Black and African designers.