A DIFFERENT TYPE OF AGENCY

As a collective, The Factory Interactive is fueled by a passion for developing enduring messages conceived through a marriage of design and technology. At the core, we are explorers of possibility and architects of memory. We create rich immersive experiences that increase message retention and reward the audience. Our mission: give personality to products, resulting in a stronger, more effective brand.

_{January 29, 2009}
The Designers Republic – RIP _{By jason}

Today I am truly saddened by the closing of the prolific and influential Designers Republic. Founded in 1986 by Ian Anderson in Sheffield England, tDR became well known for their colorful, manga infused post modernist design style. Often imitated their work could be seen in a variety of media including Logo Design, Typography, Web design, Video Games, Music Videos and more.  Their client list was equally diverse ranging from for Coca Cola, Orange and Nike to Fluke, Gatecrasher, Aphex Twin and Issey Miyaki.

As a young designer (at the time) the level of creativity and daring generated by tDR had a huge influence on me as well as many of designer buddies. The work, while many times colorful and playful, due in part to the use of manga inspired icons and avatars, also had a more sobering undertone of ironic ultra-consumerism.  Statements like “Work Buy Consume Die”, “Robots Build Robots”, “Buy nothing, pay now”, and “Kill Your Self” (a design, with the words ‘Kill Your Self’ repeated backwards all over a man’s body and face) all forced the viewer to question the deeper meaning.

In Ian Anderson’s own words “We’re more interested in questions than answers. There is no one truth. In Disinformation we Trust.” The irony of course is that the same specter of anti-establishment, pop-consumerism that built tDR’s portfolio came to call on them in the end.  tDR influenced a whole generation of designers and showed many of us that visual, Brain Aided Designs can, in the words of Luke Wroblewski, “move people into meaningful interactions.”

According to Creative Review “a seemingly perfect storm of cash-related issues ended the company, but Anderson says it will rise again in another form.”

It’s a sad end for such a great British design house but I know that I am not alone in the hope that tDR will be reborn is some form or another.

RIP tDR..you will be missed!

Filed under: Design — Tags: agency, Creative Review, Design, designers republic, Ian Anderson, RIP — @ 11:51 am

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