Digital Media (Lecture 3)The Designers RepublicInfluence on 90s club culture & music promotion

‘DR’s work is farm more graphic, unfolding with kinetic abandon across the two dimensional flatness of the printed sheet.’

‘DR, like Makela, seem fully adapted to postmodern reality, treating it as an invitation to surf opportunistically through the floating world of corporate signs’

Anderson believed that ‘postmodern design’s use of retro and vernacular imagery, there is a feeling that the culture has stalled, that there is nothing left to invent and that ‘newness’ can only lie in sampling and remixing what already exists’ (Anderson, I. in Poyner, R., 2003:103). Nethertheless, his work proved highly influential throughout the 1990s as the style’s essence is replication. Anderson made use of dots, circles, arrows, hearts, parallel lines and graph paper grips. He formed sheets of graphic texture that merged together upon one another.

In an album cover for electronic artist ‘Magic Juan’ the structure is broken apart by a swarm of dots over the titlepiece…, which is shattered horizontally. It creates the feeling that the cover has been shocked by electric currents, shattering from the effect. This connotes that the album is ‘hard to contain’ and that the sound is too exhilarating for a person’s ears.

Poyner, R. (ed) (2003) ‘Techno’ in No more rules: graphic design and postmodernism. London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd. Pp.96-118

In 1994, Designers Republic were introduced to a wider audience by their album covers for artists and bands assigned to the electronica label Warp Records and designed covers for artists such as Autechre, Pulp and Pop Will Eat Itself… the latter being very similar to that of the design of Magic Juan’s album artwork.

Note the use of overlapping imagery and the broken structures – again connoting the powerful and exciting sound of electronica in which Anderson is trying to portray.

Jordan Burns

The Designers Republic are responsible for creating striking visual identities for artists and bands in the 1990s. It were these designs that attracted people to Warp Records – the exciting, new and postmodern artwork in which TDR designed matched perfectly with the experimental, forward-looking electronica music in which Warp released.

‘People used to say ‘you’re at Designer’s Republic’ because you break the rules… we’d say ‘we’re not really, we just don’t know the rules’…”’

“‘…say a red car is yellow and you’ll get a response… confront people’s conceptions of what is, by presenting what could be…’”

- Ian Anderson

Burgoyne, P., 2009. Creative Review: The Designers Republic Remembered. [online] Available at: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/january/the-designers-republic-remembered [Accessed 22 October 2011]

As stated, The Designers Republic didn’t know, nor care, for the apparent ‘rules’ of graphic design.

Designer’s Republic’s work influenced many others; one in particular I found interesting was Corey Holms.

Shaughnessy, A. (ed) (2005) ‘Corey Holms interview’ in How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul. UK, Laurence King Publishing Ltd. Pp.131

They were able to create powerful dialogue in designs which contained little to no words – they were able to communicate with their audience.

Their use of layers is notable – they created letters, diagrams, signs and codes through the use of chopping and cutting up layers.Their designs were exciting – and influenced other designers to go against the ‘rules’ and ‘norms’ of graphic design.

Jordan Burns