Taco Bell Defined My Entire Aesthetic

I love the blend of the late 80s and early 90s aesthetics. Bright contrasting colors mixed with dull muted tones. The not quite neon colors high fiving greyish pinks and purples. Basic shapes and squiggles being all the eye candy anyone could possibly desire. 

The visual vibes of the 90s have always been compelling to me, but until a couple of days ago, I didn’t realize how much this look and feel informed my entire visual aesthetic and mental palette. I was watching this Vox video on the Memphis Group, which I’d heard about, but never realized how impactful and ubiquitous their triangles and wavy lines were in my formative years. 

Naturally, the Vox video sent me checking in on the Saved by the Bell opening to see how much it stole from the Memphis Group (spoiler... everything). That video triggered an involuntary memory of the Taco Bell chip or cinnamon twist bag below. 

That sent me to this wrapper:

Then, without my consent, that memory of the wrapper slammed me back a few decades into a hard turquoise swivel chair in a late 90s Taco Bell. That seemingly simple stream of events set off a memory explosion causing me to remember multiple moments in my youth where I made a deep connection with the colors plastering the eatery. 90s Taco Bell dining room colors affixed themselves firmly to my mental palette, and I have a strong feeling it all stems from spending entirely too much of my youth loitering in their lobby. 

These vapors of my past influenced my present brain and inspired me to draw that TacoWave future dining room from the header image. Then one thing lead to another, and now I’m writing, thinking, and creating art inspired by Taco Bell like it’s a totally normal thing. 

While researching this article I fell down the 90s Taco Bell commercial rabbit hole, and man, was that weird. Little Richard riding a car piano (piano car?) while singing an original song about Taco Bell is peak 90s. While watching the commercials, I found one that I distinctly remember seeing over and over as a kid. See below:

That commercial, plus the Taco Bell dining room, defined a large majority of the visual aesthetic I still love and utilize today. And though I’ve always known it, I never really understood where it came from until now. I’m sure there are other influences, but once I could leave my house and wander around the suburbs with my friends, Taco Bell and skateboarding next to Taco Bell is where I spent a vast majority of my time, so it tracks. 

I don’t know what to do with this info, but I do know it feels like I’ve unlocked some kind of inspiration superpower I’m sure to exhaust by the end of this next part. 

II. 90s Taco Bell A  E  S  T  H  E  T  I  C

III. Contemplating the Nature of Time at My Childhood Taco Bell

In Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, the protagonist goes to a Mexican eatery under a clock tower when the smell of French cinnamon twists sends him remembering the same smell wafting through his childhood bedroom window as he begged his mother for a goodnight kiss. In a flash, he’s propelled back to the present where he’s ordering a nachos bell grande. It’s a weird book, but remarkably prescient. I think I got that part right. Whatever the case, the dude was dead on when he said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Memories are like time traveling in a machine with foggy windows you have no control over.” 

The first time my daughter Penny had a taco (we’re a burrito family in this house) was at the Taco Bell near my natal home. The same Taco Bell I’d walk to after school with my friends. I’d suck down a Chili Cheese Burrito or two while filling a water cup with Dr. Pepper, and then we’d hangout until we got bored. Sadly, when Penny and I went, the decor had changed to its current decor, but the smell and feel were exactly the same.

When my wife Bailey was a kid, she liked to imagine time happening all at once. She’d get frustrated because she was only able to see one tiny slice at a time, but if felt if she could go outside of herself and time, she would see one big long snaking path of every single place she’d ever gone (much like the taco/Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 picture above). I love this idea, and though it’s impossible to prove, whenever I do something in a place I’ve been before and experience an unexpected memory, I like to think I’ve walked through my past self’s time slice snake (sweet band name). I find it oddly comforting and a fun way to think about memory. 

While we ate and chatted, I imagined slices of myself at different ages sitting, walking, and occasionally laying down throughout the entire dining room before coming to the present chunk of time my brain was registering in front of me, taking another bite of my taco as Penny declared the taco was yummy and a new memory was formed. 

In the book The Order of Time, theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli explains that time doesn’t exist outside of our mind and that we only have the memories of the chaos and entropy behind us to make predictions about the future. So even though Bailey’s theory seems wild at first, if the only place time exists is in my head, who is to say whether I’m experiencing it all at once or in a linear pattern? Real or not, I enjoy the notion that when I get an involuntary taco memory, it’s because I’ve walked through a version of myself in that exact same spot.

IV. Commercial A  E  S  T  H  E  T  I  C

A few choice shots from the 90s Taco Bell commercials.

Cutting Room Floor 

Steve Nicks Fajita Roundup SNL – I can’t embed this on moral or functional grounds because it’s on Daily Motion, so you’ll have to click the link to find out why this is the greatest SNL sketch ever written. 

Taco Bell may not have the sweet aesthetic vibe anymore, but he’s one last look at an abandoned Taco Bell with the good colors. 

There wasn’t enough footage inside the lobby, but this video of someone’s last day at Taco Bell in 1999 is great. It feels like it lives in the same world as Super Troopers.

I don’t remember these Taco Bell commercials, but this one has a phone sex hotline parody which is a strange choice, but I don’t know, I guess I’m not a great taco salesman?

Watching the Saved by the Bell opening reminded me that I still quote, “I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so… scared.” At least once a week.

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