the designers republic
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- Fizik0
I'm sure TDR is still kicking around doing club flyers and stuff here and there ..... probably some large scale client stuff for video games or something we don't even see.....
- ukit0
Didn't there used to be a forum on their site...I remember a day long ago when Newstoday was flooded with TDR refugees...
- enfocusmedia0
Always prefferd Tomato over TDR myself
- elektromuzak0
I really loved TDR's Wipeout game... it's too bad they aren't doing anything cool anymore.
- though few probably admit it, many got into graphic design because of that game. and understandibly so. top notch.SteveJobs
- TDR/Wipeout is the reason I got into design. Not ashamed to admit it. I love TDR.selfproclaim
- seanhaus0
I saw something they did for Sheffield about a year back, it was pretty amazing.
I'm sure they do alot of stuff that we're not even aware of since that site is updated really sporadically.
- elektromuzak0
that's probably true. i suppose with their reputation, they really don't even need to advertise to the public what their current affairs are. but, i'd still like to know they are alive and well.
- forcetwelve0
i find it amusing that most on here are slagging off a studio that basically invented the industry as we know it today. far out. think of it like a musician - not all their albums are gold, but if they have a few good ones you could say that their contribution to their industry is significant and inspiring.
just cause they're not producing work in the public eye as much as they used to, or not wearing fukin tight black jeans and oversize thsirts doesnt mean they're gone.
- who's balls are you sweating? Shit!elektromuzak
- shit man, you probably work for tDR, don't you? Sorry about that.elektromuzak
- I mean sorry that you work for tDR.elektromuzak
- nah i don't. i'm not swaeting anyone.forcetwelve
- elektromuzak0
we all acknowledge TDR's contribution to design... hell, they were one of my greatest inspirations when i got started in this industry. I just want to know what they are doing now. you mentioned musicians, so i'll use one for an example: take weezer... they come out with their blue album, probably one of the best albums in modern rock music...and being weezer, they had a huuuuuge fan base. then they kind of disappeared after pinkerton, and re-emerged with their latest album "make believe" which is complete shit, i mean, just a lump of turd if you ask me. everyone bashed on it, especially those hardcore fans. but i guarantee you that those fans didn't forget about the albums between blue and pinkerton, and those fans didn't forget about weezer's significant and inspiring contribution to music. maybe weezer is jamming out in their own private studio right now out of the public eye... but we, whether fans of the designer's republic or fans of weezer will always be their greatest critics.
- ok, you used Weezer as an example. That... that... ah fuck it, I can't even be arsedkelpie
- trooper0
went to a series of talks by them 2 years ago the main outcome was Ian's bitterness at not being able to break into the agency market and being pidgeon holed as a studio that does only one type of design... everyone feels that but to stand up in public and spout on about it for an hour was a bit distressing. If you're reading this Ian... just go and hire yourself some account managers who have existing contracts and maybe set up a branch of tDR that is billed as only doing agency work. As Marketing execs(client) and account managers(aency) move around they typically take each other with them... its a closed loop so just buy in!
- elektromuzak0
Sorry, but they can't peddle shit for gold... Just doesn't work that way, even if they are the renowned "the Designers Republic", and that my friend is a big steaming pile of tDR turdism.
- broxybluenose0
The success of any design company is being able to evolve and change over time and move into different fields of design, depending on the work, new technologies, openings that are available. TDR just have not progressed enough and other companies have caught up with them, making them in todays design world....very average.
- elektromuzak0
very true
- Dancer0
"a studio that basically invented the industry as we know it today"
Quite a bold statement...
I ain't one to knock 'em, not my kind of work but I can certainly see why they were and still are respected.
I tend to think that tDR's work dynamics have changed since M Place, M Pyke and BOB have left to do their own thing.
I bit they are still producing great work just not so public and maybe in Japan or summit.
Neville Brody is still doing his thing without shouting about it.
- broxybluenose0
look, lets all agree.
They were good once......now their not so good?- Agreed - They were ahead of the times once - influential - but now...?Ranger
- johnnnnyh0
"basically invented the industry as we know it today" - I really don't think that's quite true. I think they were important, but at the time there were loads of others who were equally if not more important like Attik, AKQA, Digit, Razorfish, Deepend, Tomato - that was a defining moment in the digital design industry.
I always saw TDR slightly out of that - more like Tomato I guess. I think it was still revolutionary, but in context, they weren't inventing the industry.
Do others see TDR as mainly a graphic(al) agency rather than digital (if I may draw the two as distinct)? They did do some interesting retro-styled digital work as I remember. I thought their website was built by someone else anyway.
- elektromuzak0
you're right, tDR works with a developer called Kleber... check out http://www.kleber.net/. Klever developed tDR's site and bleep.com which is a site that sells mp3 electronica. I visit bleep.com often and buy tracks here and there. Not sure if bleep is associated with tDR though, but I know they designed the interface.
- Spookytim0
I think one of the hardest things to accept is that you have your day and then, like the ocean, you roll back below. That's not to say you can't have your day again, but being on top once before doesn't qualify you to be on top again. You have to sink back below, and either wait for your style to be appreciated all over again by a new audience so you get ressurected as a grand-daddy of a genre trend, or you have to worj hard and hope that you come up with something new and exctiing one day that puts you back on top. I think this is true for all of us who actually give a fuck about our work, not just the celebrated heroes.
I personally am going through a lot of mithering bollocks trying to invent a new style and approach right now.
To some extent I think WhyNot Associates have done really weel to quietly age into a good quality set up. I would have written them off completely after the 90's.... after all, their first time on top consisted of little more than infantile Freehand pen tool scribbling and tourettian type hacking, but look at them now... they do really beautiful understated and effortlessly stylish looking work.
(I'm not dissing the old Ynots stuff BTW, at the time it was awesome, but in retrospect its quite primitive).
I reckon a lot of these design heroes must go through terrible angst and bleak-as-fuck turmoil as they watch themselves slipping from their perches at the top. It must be awful. But, you can only be the next new fresh exciting original thing until everyone has consumed it, then its the mainstream, then its some other young rapscallion's turn to present a fresh style of work. Someone who you probably employed from college three years previously.
- elektromuzak0
why not has some interesting portfolio work, but their branding + identity work is crappy in my opinion
- their motion work is shite!broxybluenose
- in fact, i'd say most of their stuff isn't very impressive.elektromuzak
- Look again. They are quietly doing some great stuff, honest. no, honestly. no? oh.Spookytim
- johnnnnyh0
Spookytim - I agree. I find design moves on so rapidly, more so than say music, so you see one style - and you like it, then that's it, it can't be copied, it can be reset, but each time you see it you know where it's come from. Like when the Guardian did the thing with their logo, and everyone was doing two colours/two fonts with typography.
If it was music you'd get a whole set of bands and you'd appreciate each one, but in design I feel it always goes back to the first person who does it.
I remember the MTV flash website which Digit(?) did and it was like wow, you can do that on the web - But I didn't want to see more of the same thing, although I did want to "feel the same" about any site I saw, as in "Wow" - which rarely happens.
Another one was Joshua Davies Barney's site - which you saw everywhere once it was clear how he'd done it.
I guess you need to keep one step ahead of the game, and not locked into your style, but keep ditching it and re-inventing yourself. Then again Cartier Bresson did pretty much the same style of images all his life and it didn't matter.
Anyway, what do I know?
I dread the angst and the bleakness, am glad it doesn't disturb me since I have no talent to lose.