Stylogenyin the style of Corporate Memphis

Digital native · 2017–present · North America, Global / networked

Corporate Memphis

Also known as Alegria, Big Tech art style, Flat human illustration

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.

Make something in this styleGet advice in this styleMix it with another style

A brightly coloured illustration shows a person with a dark ponytail striding with one knee raised and arms spread, wearing a yellow shirt, purple trousers and teal shoes. The words “Move Brighter” appear above them on a white background scattered with colourful dots and curved marks.
AI-generated by Stylogeny from the style’s design choices. Not a real or historical work.

01

How it works

  • Draw people as flat vector figures with oversized limbs and torsos, tiny heads and minimal or no facial features.
  • Use non-naturalistic skin colours (purple, blue, coral) so figures read as universal rather than as specific people.
  • Render everything in flat fills without outlines, gradients or texture, letting overlapping shapes describe form.
  • Isolate small vignettes (a figure, a laptop, a potted plant) on white space beside short headline copy.
  • Scatter blobs, leaves and confetti squiggles to add energy without adding information.
  • Build a modular kit of poses, props and colours so any team can assemble on-brand scenes.

San Francisco Bay Area tech industry (Buck's Alegria system for Facebook)

02

Its design choices

From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

Layout & composition
Space & hierarchy
Typography
Colour
Form & shape
Surface & texture
Ornament
Imagery
Medium & production
Tone & intent
Avoids
Naturalistic depiction, Straight photography, Rebellious & subversive, Ironic & self-aware, Dark ground, Photocopy & distress, Horror vacui, Experimental & distorted

Palette

  • #ffffff
  • #6c63ff
  • #ff7f6e
  • #ffc857
  • #2f2e41
  • #3ec7b0

Typefaces

  • Circular

    Lineto

  • Airbnb Cereal

  • Gilroy

  • Inter

Known for

  • Buck, Alegria illustration system for Facebook

    2017

  • Katerina Limpitsouni, unDraw open-source illustrations

    2017

  • Pablo Stanley, Humaaans illustration library

    2018

  • Slack and Salesforce marketing illustration

    late 2010s

03

Make something in this style

Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Corporate Memphis’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.

Rule out a choice, read the prompt, or blend in another style: take this brief to Mix styles.

04

Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

Before it

The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.

This styleCorporate Memphis2017–present · North America, Global / networked

After it

The styles that grew out of it.

No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.

Alike in its design choices

Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.

05

Real works

Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.

06

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, 'Corporate Memphis' (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis)
  2. Creative Bloq, 'Why I'm glad the Corporate Memphis art style is dead' (creativebloq.com)

How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.