The Designers Republic dies, but will return

The Designers Republic, the graphic design firm credited with the iconic look of PlayStation franchise WipEout has closed down – but its founders say it will return.

A story on design mag Creative Review’s blog confirms the closure, quoting founder Ian Anderson as saying: “We’d lost a couple of clients, didn’t win a couple of pitches, got a tax bill which should have been sorted out and wasn’t and a major client who didn’t pay the money they owed us – in themselves any of those things would have been fine but when they come all at once there’s not much you can do.”

The studio employed nine staff, all of which are now redundant.

But Anderson, while disappointed at losing staff, says the closure will mean a rebirth for the company which also produced iconic graphic work for the likes of Coca-Cola.

The studio had more recently followed a traditional agency-style approach to its work with clients, and Anderson wants to return to more closer collaboration instead – the same attitude which allowed its work with Sony in the mid-90s.

“I want to go back to what DR was,” CR quotes Anderson as saying.

“Working hands-on and not through account managers. I’ve never liked that agency model – it’s not where creativity lies. DR accidentally ended up there in order to service bigger clients. I’m not being ungrateful to the people who ran the business side at DR – it wasn’t their fault. I’m glad we did it – it took getting there to make me realise that it wasn’t where I wanted to be.”