‘We didn’t care what the client wanted!’: Sheffield’s Designers Republic on their art for Aphex Twin, Pulp … and Pringles
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- The Designers Republic turns 40, with founder Ian Anderson (now 65) selling original stickers, flyers and posters from his private archive alongside a new merch line to commemorate the milestone
- Ian Anderson co-founded TDR with Nick Phillips in 1986; their self-taught, black-and-white early work led to commissions from Aphex Twin, Autechre, Pulp, Nine Inch Nails, Coca-Cola, Adidas and Pringles, with work held in MoMA and the V&A
- TDR created Warp Records' logo and purple visual identity, driving the Sheffield label's aesthetic for its first 10 years — Anderson said the remoteness of Sheffield meant clients rarely checked in: "No one was gonna jump on a train to come up and check on us"
- TDR grew to about 20 staff before entering voluntary liquidation in 2009 as post-financial-crisis marketing budgets shrank; Anderson revived it as a solo operation, telling The Guardian at the time: "When I took a back seat to allow TDR to grow beyond me, it died"
- Aphex Twin's Syro (2014) featured TDR's conceptually ambitious packaging, in which the cover doubled as a full receipt for every penny spent on the album, alongside an infographic listing all 138 pieces of audio equipment used
- Anderson coined the term "SoYo" (South Yorkshire) and the "North of Nowhere" tagline; TDR's 1990s work included anti-capitalist posters reading "Work. Buy. Consume. Die." and a faux corporation called Pho-Ku
Why it matters: Anderson is parting with a personal archive built over four decades — one collector remortgaged his house twice to keep up — while social media introduces TDR to younger fans who now call him "the Goat." His post-2009 solo revival and willingness to design for Coca-Cola and Pringles despite "sold out" accusations position him as an outlier in British design.
