The 90s were a true mashup of styles; music, entertainment, and technology came together to influence graphic design in major ways. Countercultures like grunge combined with mainstream culture like R&B, pop, and TV to inspire everything that came out of this decade, where being cool and getting attention was at the core of creative expression.
In this article, we'll explore the impact that pop and underground culture had on graphic design throughout the 90s and see how 90s design is making a comeback today. If you like videos, don't miss this new content from the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel to learn everything about the 90s graphic design style:
The 90s were a truly experimental decade. Everything was up for grabs, and almost all design rules were thrown out of the window. There were many experiments with colour combinations, often to the point of compromising type legibility. Computer modelling was also mixed with traditional graphic design techniques, and these and other innovations have kept 90s design fresh and relevant to this day.
Deconstructing the 90s
To deconstruct and explain this design movement, we’ll begin by taking a quick look at the previous decade to understand its evolution. The early 90s echoed much of the 80s, but in a more individualistic way.
The start of the digital era took place during the 80s, making this decade uniquely futuristic, especially with the release of many popular sci-fi movies. The introduction of CDs and portable game consoles like the Game Boy changed the way we looked at entertainment, while the launch of MTV changed the music industry forever.
Technological developments saw the release of personal computers by IBM and Macintosh, with the internet still in its developmental phase. PCs and Macs brought the first wave of design software, which allowed designers to create progressive and cool designs.
Finally, the famous Memphis group, whose style influenced much of pop culture, was born during the 80s and was characterized by colourful and abstract shapes that eventually made their way into the next generation. When we talk about the 90s, it’s easy to talk about the Memphis Style's spillover into the decade, but we often forget there was a lot more going on just under the surface of pop culture.
90s Graphic Design
Technological Advancements
While the 80s started the technological revolution, the 90s solidified its importance and made new technologies available for everyone to use.
- Photoshop emerged in this decade, allowing for exciting new possibilities. Designers embraced digital tools and mixed them with traditional elements to create a new style.
- Animated films made a comeback with Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Pixar released Toy Story, the first feature-length computer-animated film. This revolutionized live-action films and video games.
- Personal computers became a household item. Kids were doing school homework on computers, the internet became available, and CDs became increasingly popular, allowing us to share information more easily.
Music
Music is a huge pointer of cultural evolution and often a direct influence on design trends.
- Grunge music inspired the anti-design style and eliminated any rules graphic design had. Famous for their experimental and distressed looks, grunge graphics were all about looking messy, torn, and stained. David Carson is the household name you hear when it comes to rebellious design. The work he did for Ray Gun, an alternative rock-and-roll magazine, was full of experimental typography and unique views on culture. Stefan Sagmeister is another household name when it comes to experimental design, with his handwritten style and mix of physical and digital design.
- Rave parties ruled much of the decade, with acid house and trance music that originated in the 80s but got a more solid design style in the 90s, with psychedelic smileys, contrasting typography, bold layering, and neon colours. Thanks to the advances in technology, many adopted a surrealist approach to their graphics, as shown in the rave culture posters with fantasy themes that included a combination of 2D and 3D elements.
- The opposite of the grunge and rave subcultures was dance-pop, which was all about fun and colour. The Spice Girls are one of the best brand examples in the music industry. Each member acted like a sub-brand, with the band members' distinctive personalities aligning with the group's core message of individuality. It was a mash-up of styles that translated into graphics without a set colour palette, a wide range of imagery, and bold fashion styles.
90s Technology on Typography
Many of the futuristic movies from the 80s influenced typographic experiments in the 90s. The combination of multiple fonts broke the rules of cohesiveness, and glowing borders were completely against traditional design. There were plenty of distorted fonts and floating 3D text, not only in underground graphics but also in popular culture.
In the 90s, album covers, TV commercials, and magazine ads generally looked neat, clean, and brightly coloured, similar to the Memphis Style we saw in the 80s and most likely influenced by pop culture. We can’t forget about the mash-up style of typography in advertising, with different font styles being used on a single page.
Jonathan Barnbrook is a famous designer and typographer, best known for his designs for David Bowie. Barnbrook designed the Exocet typeface in 1991 for Emigre and Illustration Now. The font was later used in the video games Dungeons and Dragons: Planescape and Diablo because of its Gothic style. It also made its way into everything from album covers to movies and even tea branding.
Let’s not forget the widely popular Comic Sans, designed by Vincent Connare and released by Microsoft in 1994. The design was intended as a comic-book-style typeface for use in cartoon speech bubbles. With desktop publishing gaining popularity in the 90s, Comic Sans found its way into school newsletters, shop signs, and commercial graphic design.
In the 90s, many foundries began to digitize fonts and distribute them via CDs. Suddenly, designers had endless options for creating unique typography.
Advertising
Advertising in the 90s was heavily influenced by the release of Adobe Photoshop. The opportunity to enlarge elements, juxtapose items, and create effects opened up designers’ creativity. Nineties ads are easy to recognize: there were the ones with a bright and solid-coloured background featuring a product, the off-white blank background, and the ones with a set photoshoot and a manicured background. Many ads included very little text, with the exception of technology-related ads.
Nineties TV commercials became iconic as technology allowed for collaboration between designers and animators. Since airing ads wasn’t as expensive as it is today, ads ranged from short movies to completely computer-generated animations.
The Internet and Y2K
Towards the end of the 90s, graphic design was heavily influenced by the growth of the internet. The World Wide Web was now open for commercial use, but websites were generally simple, functional, and often lacking in beauty. There was little colour and lots of text, and the concepts of interaction and a smooth user experience were still in their infancy. Brutalism wasn't created in the 90s, but due to technological innovations and the internet, many websites had a default brutalist look. While there were innovations, there were also limitations in web design.
With the popularity of the internet and the approaching millennium, sci-fi and futuristic styles started to emerge. High-tech, blue tones, all white, and minimalist graphics slowly took over. Fashion was full of shiny clothes, silver eyeshadow, and experimental looks. It was a unique look: think cyberpunk from the 80s, but with new software.
Contemporary Graphic Design: The 90s Revival
Trends come in cycles. It’s been a couple of decades since the 90s, and the decade is coming back into fashion, serving as inspiration for the styles that are emerging now. With many 90s bands making a comeback and touring around the world, the 90s aesthetic is regaining popularity.
We’re living in an age in which open-source applications and design elements are open for anyone to explore. Many of the 90s trends that we used to see printed, we can see now on social media. Brutalism had a resurgence in 2019, with chunky shapes and experimental fonts. Acid/rave graphics weren’t too far behind, with their sci-fi, futuristic, bright-coloured, and warped elements. The spillover of the Memphis Style from the 80s into the 90s also appeared in the last few years. Maybe it's a coincidence due to the recently released Barbie movie, but pastel colours, geometric shapes, kitschy textures, and abstract patterns have flooded social media.
The anti-design movement of the 20th century is still popular, rejecting established design principles and aesthetics. Clashing colours, extreme layering, and almost illegible typography are still key components of this new anti-design.
Conclusion
Nineties graphic design was a game changer, mainly due to technology advancements. Due to the release of new software, the popularity of owning a desktop, and later on the internet, graphic design became easier to practise and influence. Information was able to spread faster, making it easier to stay connected with pop culture. New trends emerged overnight, and designs were shared quickly over the internet.
In the present day, technology is evolving even faster, with the introduction of faster internet, open-source design elements, free online apps, and social media. In 2018, the 90s started to make a comeback, and now we’re seeing new interpretations of key 90s style designs being shared at a rapid rate. Just like in the 90s, music and technology are playing an important role, but this time with a big pinch of nostalgia.
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