The above example of work produced by the Designers Republic (tDR) appeared in Creator Magazine (UK) in 1996. It is entitled ‘Designers Republic versus Norway - Talent Borrows, Genius Steals, Shit Copies’.
tDR formulated a highly complex graphic style. This ‘digital baroque’ is a compendium of damaged graphic mannerisms, a frantic and labyrinthine system of repeated symbols and cryptic slogans detailed to the point of abstraction. [1] Horizontal bands of rules, cluster together and fire apart in a blizzard of graphic noise. Fragmented type and technical data are crushed down to form a dense typographic strata. [2]
The ubiquitous presence of the barcode in the top corner, appears to inform the graphic language of this piece. The myriad of shooting lines and vividly coloured grid sections, move across the page at an exhilerating pace and explode in a plume of graphic excess. This sybolism of a market driven environment offers a subjective documentary on the consumer society. The duality and ambivalence of the consumer / corporation relationship is a re-occurring theme for tDR.
Hugely influential throughout the 1990’s, tDR’s unique, post-modernist treatment of contemporary media culture as a trash aesthetic was delivered with intoxicating intensity. The trademark elements in tDR work and the focus of this investigation, was the deconstructed maelstrom of computer-generated interference. Row upon row of horizontal lines, fractured typography and random snatches of information bombard the senses. This seemingly chaotic fragmentation and hyper-detail is in fact painstakingly arranged to approximate the energising thrill of full sensory immersion in contemporary media culture. The elaborate layout of this graphic overload ensures that there is no single focal point. The viewer is presented with a precise assemblage of disparate elements to be individually deciphered. It is the responsibility of the viewer to rationalise these ingredients and draw their own conclusions about the resultant message.
The multi layered design aesthetic was an epithet for the post-modern cyber world where the keyboard operator could endlessly manipulate the dissolving streams of digital data. This digital stream of human consciousness is difficult to harness. The temptation to tinker is inherently difficult to resist. Before long the process rather than the message become the driving force, this can be exhausting in terms of man-hours.
“ The devil is in the detail, and more is definitely more, but sometimes less is better. The detail has become less an output than part of a thinking process. It depends at which point your thinking engages with the tools and the means of expression and production.” - Ian Anderson [3]
Critics of this methodology find it difficult to resolve the unfocussed and indulgent nature of this work. [4]Purists contend that the task of design is to remove ambiguity and present an uncluttered and simplified solution. What is clearly communicated in this example of tDR work is an exuberance, dynamism and a blast of raw energy. The meticulous attention to detail in the levels of layered deconstruction, reveals a slavish adherence to design principals which were at odds to the majority of their contemporaries. Designers Republic had the courage of their design convictions - to destroy in order to create.
References:
[1] Davies, J (Spring 1995) Go-faster graphics. Eye 16. VOL 4. pp44
[2] [4] Poynor, R (2009) Crit: They sell! We buy! CreativeRreview [online] Available at: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/back-issues/creative-review/2009/april-2009/they-sell-we-buy (accessed 10th January 2011)
[3] Farrelly, L (Spring 2009) Interview with Ian Anderson. Eye 71. VOL18. pp10
Burgoyne, P (2009) The Designers Republic Is Dead; Long Live The Designers Republic. Creative Review Blog [online] Available at: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/january/the-designers-republic-is-dead-long-live-the-designers-republic. (accessed 10th January 2011)
Burgoyne, P (2009) The Designers Republic Remembered Creative Review Blog [online] Available at: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/january/the-designers-republic-remembered (accessed 10th January 2011)
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