Ian Anderson's Republic
Tears were shed and eulogies left as globally celebrated studio The Designers Republic was shut a year ago. Ian Anderson and tDR are now back again, showing why the agency he founded gained such acclaim.
Forged in Sheffield the studio’s steely resolve to push the boundaries of brand design fostered a signature style that saw fusion of anti-establishment aesthetic with full red blooded consumerism. A tempestuous marriage that gave birth to a litany of memorable campaigns, from poster and packaging work on 1997’s ground breaking Grand Theft Auto videogame to the sleeve of the 1987 Age of Chance single, ‘Don’t Get mad… Get Even,’ winner of Q’s ‘100 Best Record Covers of All Time’ in 2001.
Famously Émigré magazine devoted a whole issue to the studio in 1994, a copy of which was purchased by the New York Museum of Modern Art. One edition of this prized tomb was recently found on Ebay waiting to be snaffled up with bids commencing at a miserly £200… so financially astute readers may wish to have this issue of The Drum vacuum sealed for posterity.
From these heady heights however came crashing lows when a combination of factors said to include loss of clients, non payment of fees, a run of pitch failures and a hefty tax bill conspired to prompt the closure of tDR, so ending an era.
Scotching suggestion that he may have ditched the high octane world of design to pursue a tangential career path Anderson remarked: “I’m quite surprised when people ask what I’m doing now, as if I’d become a baker or go and work in a sweet factory. After 23 years I don’t really know what else to do, it’s almost as if the past two to three years didn’t happen.”
Rather, tDR has been “reignited” with Anderson taking the helm at a revamped studio that recalls the halcyon days of old in its pursuit of the future: “I’m more aware now of the impact we had than I was when we were doing it” notes Anderson. “Somewhere along the line we’d lost the values that we had, we started to deal with a very different type of client as we got bigger… before it went bang.”
Losing sight of these values provided further stimulus for Anderson in his enforced year long sabbatical: “For designers you need to be true to yourself and if you’re not comfortable then that means that you’re doing something that you shouldn’t be doing, that you’re not really cut out to do it. For me what I learned was that I am cut out to be creative but I’m not cut out to have a company which follows an agency model.
“It’s not that we couldn’t do the work it’s just that I couldn’t really bring myself to turn up every day and get into it everyday because of the knock on effect of people around me who were trying to create some agency model around tDR because that’s what they knew. There are always those tensions.”
This soul searching allowed Anderson to reappraise the business free from the tensions which had accrued: “I’ve learnt a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t have done if I’d continued on the same course”.
It is consultancy in particular that Anderson now finds most rewarding. Here opportunity is afforded to think creatively for clients such as Coca-Cola and engage with people who “really, really value your thinking”, states Anderson. “You realise there are different ways of working and with some of the bigger corporate clients you see some of the people within those organisations who are more interesting than the organisation is seen externally.”
For the relaunch then it’s very much a case of back to the future, a comeback that could only have occurred with Anderson at the helm in a more hands on role, with not an account manager to be seen as the design guru explains: “We were always misunderstood because people perceived the surface value of what we did. What people didn’t understand, and why it’s difficult for people to copy us, is what we did to resolve our thinking. It’s never been about me because a lot of really great designers have come through and contributed. But I guess in terms of the vision other people say it’s been you in terms of lots of specific pieces of work.”
Settling back into the hot seat with gusto, Anderson is busying himself with a packed schedule including a role as the creative director for the Lisbon Biennale – a situation which has generated useful new contacts and collaborations such as Sheffield Doc Fest where Anderson was asked to provide promotional branding. Elsewhere work with Make architects in London will see the agency create signage and product branding for a new build city whilst a return to music industry roots is underway with design concepts for Gatecrasher clubs in Birmingham and Nottingham.
“There are three strands for 2010 that came out of the dust and the ashes and one of them is that the tDR moves forward as was doing great work and gaining more clients. The other strands lie in pursuing a greater role in education and pursuing wider collaboration,” reveals Anderson. Already this three pronged assault on the creative world is bearing fruit with moves afoot to film a tDR documentary in the lead up to a huge retrospective in Tokyo at the Ginza Graphic Gallery.
It is a remarkable journey for Anderson who began his career designing flyers for a band he managed all those years ago and throws into focus the unpredictable twists and turns of the road ahead in life and business. If one thing is certain however it is that tDR is back and here to stay. Viva La Republic.
See the video interview with Ian Anderson here: bit.ly/anOx8H