When I was in college I vacillated back and forth between Fine Art and Commercial Art, and while the Fine Art classes seemed to have all the hot goth chicks (and nude models), my eye was constantly drawn back to Commercial Art. I always had an affinity for Andy Warhol, who strode the line between Fine and Commercial art, and was always amused by graphic artists who found ways to be fun and commercial at the same time.

In my mind, no modern design collective combined fun and commercialism as perfectly as U.K.-based group The Designers Republic. I first became aware of their work through the music of Pop Will Eat Itself, which seemed to exist in synergy with DR – in many ways it was hard to discern where the music ended and the image began. PWEI’s t-shirts were in many cases parodies of commercial logos and products – a trademark of the Designers Republic’s subversive attitudes. A prime example is the PWEI shirt designed to look just like the PEPSI logo, sold during the band’s 1991 Cure For Sanity tour. As I understand it PepsiCo wasn’t too thrilled with the homage (likely because of the verbiage around the logo: ‘SAMPLE IT! LOOP IT! FUCK IT AND EAT IT!’) and PWEI were forced to bury the design.

Most people (at least anyone not involved in the underground music scene of the late 80′s / early 90′s) probably know the Designers Republic for their work on Sony’s popular futuristic racing game franchise Wipeout. The DR crafted all the designs and artwork for the early Wipeout games, creating an entire world through an endless variety of fake company logos and slogans. In many ways, the game was like a trippy homage to the DR’s entire design aesthetic – sleek, hyperactive, and just-this-side of insane.

While most people only take a sideline interest in design, I was head-over-heels in love with the work of the Designers Republic. One of my college projects was a re-design of a Pop Will Eat Itself Album, and I’m not ashamed to say that I did my best to steal every idea I could from the DR playbook. I still have the mounted album cover at home and I have to say it turned out pretty good.

I just learned that the DR finally folded Tuesday after some financial difficulties. I am fairly bummed about this. Founder Ian Anderson says they’ll be back, and I have every faith that they will. But if the studio’s (temporary) demise does anything to shed light on their work, I’ll chalk that up as a silver lining. Long live the DR!