# Memphis pattern generator

Discs, triangles, cubes and zigzags scattered without a grid, dressed in dots, stripes and coils in clashing colours. Export a tileable SVG, a print-size PNG or a loop.

Open the generator: https://morph.ogeny.app/memphis/

## Design choices

- **All-over field** (`layout.all-over`): No focal point; the whole surface is filled evenly, like a textile. “Arrangement”: All-over. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/
- **Repetition & rhythm** (`space.repetition`): Repeated units create a visual cadence. “Arrangement”: Seamless repeat. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/
- **Dynamic asymmetry** (`layout.asymmetric`): Off-centre balance from the tension between unequal masses. “Arrangement”: Composition. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/
- **Geometric primitives** (`form.primitives`): Circle, square and triangle as building blocks. Set by “Geometric primitives”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/
- **Squiggles & confetti** (`form.squiggle`): Playful scribbles, dots and fragments scattered across the field. Set by “Squiggles & confetti”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/squiggles-and-confetti/
- **Angular & zigzag** (`form.angular`): Chevrons, zigzags, sunbursts and faceted shards. Set by “Angular & zigzag”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/
- **Abundant decoration** (`ornament.abundant`): Decoration is primary content. Set by “Abundant decoration”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/
- **Complementary clash** (`color.complementary-clash`): Vibrating opposites placed edge to edge. “Colour”: Complementary clash. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/
- **Pastel** (`color.pastel`): Light, softened tints. “Colour”: Pastel. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pastel/
- **Dark ground** (`color.dark-ground`): Light elements on black or deep fields. “Colour”: Dark ground. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/
- **Hard offset shadow** (`surface.hard-shadow`): Solid, unblurred drop shadows and outlines. Set by “Hard offset shadow”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hard-offset-shadow/
- **Pattern & repeat** (`image.pattern`): Repeating motifs as the image itself. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/
- **Flat fields** (`color.flat-fields`): Unmodulated areas of colour. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/
- **Playful & witty** (`tone.playful`): Humour, games, visual puns. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/
- **Ironic & self-aware** (`tone.ironic`): Quotation, pastiche and knowing exaggeration. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/

## How it works

- Primitive solids and small marks scattered without a grid round one or two large anchors, with room to breathe; the repeat tiles seamlessly.
- Most surfaces are printed like laminate, each print in a colour picked to clash with its fill, outlined in black with a hard offset shadow.

It never does:

- No copies of known laminates (no irregular worm-like squiggle print) and no furniture or object silhouettes: only primitives and its own prints.
- Never a grid of shapes, and shapes never pile into clutter: solids keep their distance, or overlap a little in the composition.

## Controls

- `layout` Arrangement (pattern | repeat | composition; default pattern): Shapes spread round one or two large ones, a repeat that tiles, or a cluster of large solids with confetti.
- `primitives` Geometric primitives (0–1, default 0.6): How many solids: discs, half-discs, triangles, pills, cylinders, cubes.
- `squiggle` Squiggles & confetti (0–1, default 0.6): How many small marks: coils, squiggles, dashes, dot grids.
- `angular` Angular & zigzag (0–1, default 0.5): From round shapes and waves to triangles, cubes and zigzags.
- `laminate` Abundant decoration (0–1, default 0.8): How many surfaces are printed like laminate, the ground included.
- `colour` Colour (clash | pastel | dark; default clash)
- `shadow` Hard offset shadow (0–1, default 0.5): How far each shape casts a flat shadow; 0 for none.
- `outline` Outline (0–8, default 3.5): Weight of the black outlines.
- `scale` Scale (0.5–2, default 1): Size of the shapes; smaller means more of them.

## About Memphis Design

Memphis was a design group first shown in Milan in 1981, whose furniture and printed laminates set out to mock tasteful modernism. Its graphic language is easy to recognise and hard to do well: primitive solids with black outlines, squiggles, confetti and dot grids, in colours chosen to clash, such as pink against black, mint against red and yellow against blue.

This generator scatters a short list of solids and marks, different for each variation, round one or two large anchor shapes, and spaces them so that nothing sits on a grid and nothing piles up. Most surfaces get a print of their own in a colour picked to clash with the fill, then a black outline and a hard offset shadow. The all-over arrangement keeps every shape inside the frame; the seamless repeat lets shapes run off one edge and back in at the other, so it tiles; the composition stacks a few large solids into a cluster with confetti around it.

The prints are drawn by the generator rather than copied from any laminate: dots, sprinkles, stripes, zigzags, waves, coils, graph grid and checks. Each variation picks its ground from the palette's lighter colours or a pale tint of one of them. You can change the balance of round and angular forms, how much is decorated, the colours and the shadow, or borrow a palette from another style.

Memphis Design in Stylogeny (1981–1988): https://stylogeny.com/styles/memphis/

## Recipe

```json
{
  "tool": "memphis",
  "v": 1,
  "seed": 7,
  "format": "portrait",
  "params": {
    "layout": "pattern",
    "primitives": 0.6,
    "squiggle": 0.6,
    "angular": 0.5,
    "laminate": 0.8,
    "colour": "clash",
    "shadow": 0.5,
    "outline": 3.5,
    "scale": 1
  },
  "palette": "memphis"
}
```