Explainer video style · Memphis pop

Memphis design explainer videos

Bright 1980s Memphis design: bold outlines, hard shadows, dots, stripes and squiggles. Brief it in one sentence and get a narrated, animated explainer film in the Memphis pop style, scored and voiced, in about 15 minutes.

Make one in this style

Or let the director choose a style for your topic.

Sample film: How Does a Hybrid Car Work?

What it looks like, and when to use it.

Big flat blocks of yellow, pink, cobalt and mint covered in polka dots, stripes and zigzags, every shape outlined in deep indigo with a sharp shadow, and confetti squiggles in the sky. Memphis pop is 1980s Memphis design, drawn in code, with a slow camera drifting over a busy little world: birds, cars, people walking and small surprises timed to playful sounds. It is bright and cheerful, and it makes everyday topics feel fun.

Best for

Everyday life and how things work
Upbeat brand and product stories
Kids’ and family explainers

Try a brief like

“How a city street wakes up in the morning”
“Where your coffee comes from”
“How recycling gets sorted”

The art direction the director follows.

Every style is a full art direction, not a filter: its own palette, type, motion and music. This is the brief the director works from for Memphis pop.

Look: Drawn in code, no generated images: 1980s Memphis Group design (Ettore Sottsass) applied to everyday life. Large flat colour blocks in yellow, pink, cobalt blue, coral red, mint green, sky blue and light purple, each overlaid with a small pattern: polka dots, diagonal or straight stripes, zigzags. Every object, from a facade to a coffee cup, has the same deep indigo outline and a sharp, unblurred offset shadow in the same indigo, all falling the same way. Confetti shapes (triangles, rings, squiggles, little bars) float in empty space. No gradients, no soft light: bright, graphic, light-hearted.
Motion: One continuous, slow and steady camera move per shot: a gradual zoom-in with a touch of roll. The frame is never still: clouds drift and their shadows slide across the facades, birds cross the sky, cars drive by, people walk, leaves fall. Over that bustle, one or two small story moments per scene (a window pops open, a pot springs out, a ball bounces) land exactly on a sound effect. Arrivals pop with a small overshoot and settle; confetti bobs.
Music: Light, sunny pentatonic melody on marimba, glockenspiel or plucked synth, around 100–112 BPM, with soft hand percussion, under a bed of everyday city ambience (birds, distant traffic, footsteps). Playful sound effects (pops, boings, plucks, bicycle bells) mark every visual event.
Type: A chunky geometric display face (Rubik, Lilita One or Fredoka at weight 600–700) in flat ink colours with the same indigo outline and hard offset shadow as the shapes; labels sit on small outlined colour tags.

Films made in Memphis pop.

How Does a Hybrid Car Work?

A 31-second Memphis pop explainer: a hybrid that never plugs in keeps its battery charged two ways. The petrol engine tops it up with spare power, and braking turns the electric motor into a generator.

Memphis pop31sEnglish