Will that ‘big tech art style’ become the comic sans of art styles?

An attempt to understanding the perception of this global trend with the help of Comic Sans

Published in

Bootcamp

5 min readMay 14, 2021

Go to Google Images, type ‘design illustration’ and hit enter. You’d find these familiar minimalistic flat illustrations that you have seen before, probably just 10 minutes ago, on one of the apps on your phone. They are everywhere- that ‘friendly’ art style with disproportionate happy human figures, often goes by the names- The Big Tech Art Style, Corporate Art Style, Corporate Memphis and more. These colourful figures are constantly in motion, performing one action or another on your familiar splash pages and websites.

But where did it all start?

Sometime in 2017, an American design firm called Buck rolled out an illustration system called Alegria (Spanish for ‘joy’) for Facebook’s content. This almost geometric flat art style sees its origins in the modernism art movement. The illustrations are usually dynamic, comprising happy human figures with long limbs, colourful faces, flat fills and smooth curvy strokes.

The style’s feasibility and success made this ‘Corporate Memphis’ trend take off with full speed. This aesthetic was reproduced and became a part of tech giants like Google, Uber, Youtube and Hinge. It eventually found its way to all kinds of smaller tech startups and is now ubiquitous, just like the Comic Sans font found its audience in anyone tired of the other formal options and wanted to practice their amateur design skills.

Why is this art style being used widely?

This vector-based illustration style is easily understandable with its simplicity and minimalistic representation of any action. The illustrations are reliable, inoffensive and inclusive because the characters are abstracted into recognisable asymmetrical figures with non-objective skin colours in an aggressively joyful setting. Besides the trustworthy look and feel, these illustrations are scalable, replicable and could be easily animated. They are also readily available as open-source illustrations on the web for anyone to download and tweak to their requirements.

What parallel could it have with Comic Sans?

Let’s take a step back and discuss one of the most disliked fonts — Comic Sans. Designed in three days for Rover’s chat bubbles on Microsoft Bob in 1994, the font became a part of Windows 95 systems instead and then there was no way to tell the users how to use it. The font gained popularity among the non-designers and got taken up into their documents like homemade flyers, invitations, cards, posters etc. It eventually started to see its downfall when the internet, publishing and got stronger ten years later, where more people had access to read a message written in Comic Sans. The font began to be discovered in places where its extremely casual personality did not suit the conveyed message. It was everywhere. Graphic Designers started to dislike this font, and with an online movement to ban it, this font almost became a joke and a good meme subject.

Our ‘Big Tech Art Style’ seems like it is on a similar path by being a part of every second tech company’s creative collaterals, just like when Comic Sans became a part of every creative document. It has already made its presence in the meme world and found its expanding group of haters. A relevant part of this group consists of illustrators and artists who do not see it as ‘authentic’ anymore. While it does convey a message, the style only exists as a convenient marketing and branding tool for many products. Like the font, Corporate Memphis has begun to be discovered in places where its jovial personality doesn’t seem to be the right fit. The intended oversimplification of these illustrations can give a false sense of security and lower the consumers’ guard in situations where they are expected to be more careful. For example, this art style is often strategically placed in exploitative subscription terms, privacy agreements and policy updates. It’s like writing a warning sign in Comic Sans.

Where is it heading?

This style isn’t personally relatable but is more of an aggressive amplification of the expression of joy and trust, hence more than reflection, it projects a blissful unworldly scenario. Like Comic Sans, it seems to be incorrectly used on a large scale. It has already started missing its goal by adding to the global homogenisation and standardization of the internet’s visual look and feel and is now being identified with tech corporates. Individual expression forms an essential part of the brand’s online identity. Reflecting it through these super excited bendy figures seems like a lazy, makeshift solution where the only recognisable factor that remains is the brand colours.

*Image Source: Posted by u/ramzes8811 on* *Reddit*

Like all trends, this trend will eventually pass when brands see this aesthetic becoming redundant in the web crowd. The Comic Sans trend also found its end with designers understanding its personality and seeing through its misuse. This style lures many new designers and has managed to make it into their portfolios today. Still, many designers have already started to see through this illustration style, and their portfolios online show that they have begun moving on.