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| tDR logo |
The Designers Republic, or tDR, is a graphic design studio that has a
high reputation among graphic designers and is well known for its futuristic and
Japanese-style approach to designs. It is based in Sheffield, England and was
founded by Ian Anderson in February 1986. It is also well-known for its take on
controversial irony and almost has a postmodern feel to it.
Originally, Ian Anderson created The Designers Republic for
the sole purpose to design flyers for the band he managed, called Person to
Person. His initial ideas were inspired by constructivism. As time went on they
started to become more and more well known, until 1994, when Émigré magazine devoted
an entire issue to Designer’s Republic, which is now sold out and a copy was
also bought by MOMA in New York. Apart from their work in the music industry,
they had also worked with some big companies, such as Sony or Rockstar Games.
Their style is usually very bright and loud, which is
effective when trying to get attention. They
use colours like red and black a lot, and also use negative space to fill
spaces. Like I previously said, they use controversial irony and a postmodern mind-set
to create statements such as “Work Buy Consume Die”, or “Robots Build Robots”. Some
of their work is very packed full of stuff and has objects overlapping other
objects whereas other work of theirs is very simple and plain and only has a
few elements in the page.
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| "Work Buy Consume Die", by The Designers Republic |
This is the Work Buy Consume Die statement that I previously
mentioned. I really like this piece of art because it is very simple and makes
good use of negative space. The words “Work Buy Consume Die is a statement to
society, as this is what they believe life is today, as this is what people
have to look forward to. The background is white, which means anything they put
in the centre of the image in a different colour will grab your attention
instantly. The logo in the top reminds me of a Pepsi logo, but is quite different
to the Pepsi logo. The words are initials in a Japanese style, which I think is
a nice touch. The black on white text makes the image eye catching, as it is
directly underneath the red logo.
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| Wipeout Poster |
This is one of the posters that Designers Republic created
for the Wipeout game. I think this is a
great design and looks very professional. There are only three colours used in
this image even though it looked like more colours to me. Red, green and white
is a colour scheme I have not seen often, and I think this works well. The red
background is not just a background, and has shapes and textures on it. The
font chosen for the name of the game is an excellent choice as it matches the
futuristic feel of the entire poster. The text is white on red so it attracts
attention instantly, as the word ‘Wipeout’ was the first thing I saw. The box
surrounding the title and green and red bars is almost like a rounded rectangle,
though it is jagged at some points, which also shows the futuristic approach to
the poster. I think the red and green bars are a good addition to the image, as
it completes the image and attracts attention.
