Author: Daniel Dylan Wray
The Designers Republic (tDR) is one of the most ubiquitous and successful design companies on the planet. We’re celebrating 40 years of design excellence.
The Designers Republic (tDR) is one of the most ubiquitous and successful design companies on the planet. They have worked on thousands of record sleeves, re-designed Coca-Cola bottles, shaped the aesthetic of game-changing computer games, and the flyers they made for nightclubs 30 years ago are now considered treasured collector’s items. Which is not bad going for a design agency that started by accident.
It began in Sheffield in 1986 with Ian Anderson and Nick Phillips. The name given to the company was a joke, because neither were designers, as well as a play on the city once being referred to as the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire. Anderson had been in bands, as well as managing local outfit, Person to Person, while Phillips was a sculpture student who also played the organ in the band World of Twist. Despite having no design training or experience, they had been making DIY flyers, posters and fanzines for such projects. So when a Sheffield record label started – FON – they asked to pair to design their record sleeves.
They bought matching suits, initially intending to be a northern version of Gilbert & George, and became inspired by Russian constructivism, modern art, Japanese letterform and pop art. What followed was a collection of eye-popping work for FON groups such as Chakk, Pop Will Eat Itself and Age of Chance. These colourful, maximalist, text-heavy sleeves designs – which were made more by intuition and playful experimentation, rather than sticking firmly to briefs or mirroring typical design agency approaches – saw them quickly develop a singular visual style. The covers for the label utilised distinctive black and white strips over the spines, so that all FON records could be easily identified on a shelf. People noticed and soon the phone would not stop ringing.
Proudly rooted in Sheffield, tDR coined the term SoYo – an abbreviation of South Yorkshire, while the tagline for the company is: North of Nowhere. So when a new record label formed in 1989 – the groundbreaking and pioneering Warp – there was only one local design company they would turn to shape its aesthetic identity. From the label’s retro futurist logo, to the bold purple that adorned early sleeves, via experimental and conceptually rich work for everyone from Aphex Twin to Autechre, tDR became synonymous with a new era of design.
As demand grew, alongside their innovation, they soon turned into a global powerhouse. By the mid-1990s, they were working with everyone from hip techno artists to Britpop megastars, as well as some of the biggest brands on earth. When Psygnosis, a Liverpool games design company, wanted someone to create the visuals, packaging and campaign for a new game – futuristic racing game, Wipeout, which would be played by millions – they turned to tDR because they were “the coolest graphic design house in the country.” The result was immersive, world-building stuff which, combined with its rave-heavy soundtrack of zeitgeist artists, proved to be a paradigm-shifting moment in the world of both gaming and design.
The style and tone of tDR evolved and they became as known for creating anime-style cartoon characters, as they were using kaleidoscopic bursts of colour alongside striking lettering. They also explored themes of irony and postmodernism, using slogans, consumerism and corporate branding as a way to flip design conventions challenge people’s preconceptions. They even created their own faux corporation called Pho-Ku and produced posters with slogans such as: “Work. Buy. Consume. Die.” that have gone on to be hugely sought after collector’s items. But as a company who were as interested in counterculture as they were mainstream pop culture, they also worked with some of the biggest names on the planet, like Coca-Cola, Adidas, Nickelodeon, Pringles, MTV, Cartoon Network etc. Although, despite becoming a hugely in-demand name, with an office that had grown to almost 20 staff, they also remained deeply connected to Sheffield. They created sleek and immediately distinctive work for superclub Gatecrasher, as well as places such as The Leadmill and NY Sushi, and creating work for local electronic legends Cabaret Voltaire.
The sheer scale and volume of work that has come out of the company is staggering. It’s been exhibited all over the world, is featured in books – including a 500-page A-Z of their work published by Thames & Hudson – and is housed in permanent collections in the MoMA and V&A. The work is continually gobbled up by hardcore collectors, while new fans are being made via younger generations who are discovering this stuff for the first time via social media accounts. 40 years on from its accidental inception, tDR has had many imitators but it remains a true one-off in the design world. And now you can drink it.
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We’re proud to say that working with tDR, for us, is very exciting. We’ve been fans of their work for decades. Keep an eye out for an upcoming UK tour with Ian Anderson in conversation with us. We’ll be touring pubs and bars and alongside beer we’ll be bringing with us an exclusive tDR40 print brochure for all of those who attend.
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Daniel Dylan Wray is the author of Groovy, Laidback and Nasty: A History of Independent Music in Sheffield which was published earlier this year by our friends at White Rabbit Books. Daniel also writes for the Guardian and has also written for the BBC, the Independent, Vice, the New Statesman and more.
