Designers Republic goes bust

LARF · 28 January, 2009, 03:22:55 PM

Woolworths
MFI
RBS
Land of Leather

and now DR, the iconic agency bites the dust

//http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/the-designers-republic-is-dead-long-live-the-designers-republic/

chris_askham · 28 January, 2009, 06:49:58 PM

Ahh, fond memories of all those old PWEI t-shirts I used to own...

Peter Wolf · 28 January, 2009, 07:22:27 PM

Interesting article .It ended on a high note and they must have known that Bankruptcy was inevitable and closed up shop early so they could start again under the same name.Sounds like they know what they are doing.

I know their work mainly from sleeve art for Warp records amongst others.I always read the artwork credits on sleeves to see who did what.

IndigoPrime · 28 January, 2009, 08:17:33 PM

Quote from: "peterwolf"Interesting article .It ended on a high note and they must have known that Bankruptcy was inevitable and closed up shop early so they could start again under the same name.Sounds like they know what they are doing.

Not really. A couple of the senior staff have started new brands, but the jobbing designers there don't currently have jobs.

Peter Wolf · 28 January, 2009, 08:50:31 PM

Quote from: "IndigoPrime"
Quote from: "peterwolf"Interesting article .It ended on a high note and they must have known that Bankruptcy was inevitable and closed up shop early so they could start again under the same name.Sounds like they know what they are doing.
Not really. A couple of the senior staff have started new brands, but the jobbing designers there don't currently have jobs.

I realise that and its very unfortunate but i was thinking in the longer term given the fact that they have such a good reputation which is good for them when they relaunch under the same name.There seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel but its a good example of how govt/bailouts of banks have failed to help UK businesses.They probably couldnt get any factoring to keep their cashflow going.

Dandontdare · 28 January, 2009, 08:57:33 PM

Just tried to follow the links to see what sort of stuff they were responsible for- Christ, you can tell these are "designer" websites - too clever and flashy to be any fecking use! The one linked to from the blog contains a seizure-inducing montage of flashing images, and if you follow the link to the archive you get a page with horrible text that doesn't seem to actually work - Typical designers - all flash, and no substance.

Not going to waste any more time seeing if I care about this agency.

Chris Askham has reminded me of an excellent PWEI gig at Fat Sams in Dundee many moons ago though....*nostalgic sigh*

radiator · 28 January, 2009, 10:28:06 PM

I'll always associate DR with the Wipeout games on Playstation.... great days...

Jim_Campbell · 28 January, 2009, 10:32:53 PM

Quote from: "dandontdare"Chris Askham has reminded me of an excellent PWEI gig at Fat Sams in Dundee many moons ago though....*nostalgic sigh*

I was talking about gigs gone by with my brother this morning, with particular reference to that evil attempt by the New Labour Nannies to get the noise levels restricted.

I mused on the fact that I have undeniably shaved a significant amount off the top range of my hearing through relentlessly loud gigs over the years, but would I trade a single fucking one of the classic gigs I have been to for a few hertz of high frequency back? No. Not for all the tea in China.

Not for cold hard cash would I take back New Model Army at Liverpool Royal Court in 1990, or the Fields of the Nephilim at Rock City in 1988, or any one of a dozen other gigs that have left me with a big, stupid grin on my face* and deaf for three days afterwards.

Apologies for the thread drift. As you were!

Cheers

Jim

* Hon mensh here to Manuskript and the Horatii for their cover of Boney M's "Rasputin" at (I think) Whitby 98 ...

SuperSurfer · 29 January, 2009, 12:20:24 AM

Quote from: "dandontdare"Typical designers - all flash, and no substance.

I agree, the images flash too fast on the main DR website, but the quality of the work looks pretty good from the snippets shown.

As for the "typical designers – all flash and no substance", you'll the find that the best/most usable websites such as those of the BBC, Times Online are also the work of "typical designers".

LARF · 29 January, 2009, 08:58:26 AM

Jiiiiiiim

Be nice now - 'typical designers' put form before function and create work that is legible, informative and visually attractive, work that 'does the job' - these pieces of work tend to get dropped below the radar because the more flowery stuff / arty farty stuff tends to set off the verbal exocets from wanker critics looking for the next Brody, Glasier or Kauffman.

Us 'Typical Designers' are the guys that just get on with it.

:-)

Tanky · 29 January, 2009, 09:56:50 AM

Sad news. I wouldn't have got through my design A-level without the influence of DR, and I'm sure that's true of many other ex students of a certain age!

Quote from: "Jim_Campbell"* Hon mensh here to Manuskript and the Horatii for their cover of Boney M's "Rasputin" at (I think) Whitby 98 ...

This version always puts a stupid grin on my face and is loud enough to annoy the government at a distance :mrgreen:

cheer up eh? x
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y150Lm4kZ_M