Visiting Lecturer- Ian Anderson
"The Designers Republic"
Designers Republic started on Bastille Day, 1986 in Sheffield
Designers Republic started as 2 but grew when needed, ended up at 20 and now there is only 3 members
Nick Phillips, partner- Designers Republic name came about as an in-joke
Designers Republic are a company that's not intended for making money but creativity
Anderson didn't study Graphic Design but instead Philosophy
Started doing flyers and posters for bands he was involved with- no one else wanted to do it
Anderson likes flat shapes, lines and colour but making things 3-Dimensional for the sake of being 3-Dimensional is pointless
The Designers Republic never had to pitch any of their ideas as people always came to them
The biggest question you can give to a graphic designer is the question, 'WHY?'
Being a smaller company allows to pick and choose clients and what you want to do
"Design is secondary, it's what you want to communicate"
1st piece of work- 'Thousand Years of Trouble' Album Cover Art
'Warp Records' Logo- Futuristic
Doctor No- b Typeface for Font Font
(1993-1994) Immigrey Magazine gave Designers Republic a full edition
- Birth of Character 'Sissy' -she represents America's Foreign Policy- cute appearance but holding a baseball bat to highlight her sneaky plan of attack
Sissy character evolved from 2-Dimensional to 3- Dimensional to become a fleshed out brand in her own right
- Immigrey produced her as a brand, identity and promotional material
- used particularly within the Playstation industry
- "The Godmother of all Characters"
- became a Harijuku Japanese doll (300 were individually made and handprinted)
"Customise Terror"- 1st New York Exhibition curated by Ronald Jones
- Transmodification (When one thing becomes another)
- Consumerism and Fast Money consumer goods
-'Work. Buy. Consume. Die.'- Japanese Cola Advert
- Pho-Hu Corporation'- Fake umbrella corporation used by Designer Republic for Japanese clientele as a name they work under producing the consumer based work
'Maloko' band- band album cover art based on a photograph
- Concept of Milk and trying to make it glamorous
- The images and the thought behind them is what makes them interesting
Richard X and Liberty X
- Irony of the subject matter of the photography
- Mass production of the pop music culture
'N5' for Coca Cola
- Selecting 1 design company from the 5 continents that reflect Coca Cola
- Coca Cola killed themselves through over-branding and promotion
- Want to go back to their roots
- Re-design of the contour bottle
More recent stuff us mainly packaging
- Using photography as a flat graphic for design
"Over Steps"
- 1 of the Anderson's favourite pieces he has ever done
- This piece is the most he has ever been able to communicate the message he wanted to portray
- Lack of human input
- Is technology emotional?
- We measure our successes on how precise or perfect we produce stuff. Can you make the perfect circle? Safe in the knowledge that we are imperfect
- All are 72 different circles so they are never the same
Designers Republic exhibits around the world
They are a commercial-based design company
Stipulation- it's all about us
Communicates to an audience in order to get a response- the representation of dis-information
"There is no truth- it's all based on perspective"
"More is More"
They have a shop in Tokyo as well as online
Clothing company 'Aim Low + M-SS'
Designers Republic went bust in 2009- this made all merchandise become collectables
'What is Success? Success is based on absolutes of riches and power'
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