A few weeks ago, I went to a Q&A in a pub basement with Ian Anderson, aka The Designers Republic.
The Designers Republic, or TDR, is a hugely influential advertising and design studio, mostly known for their work on the Wipeout series, but they’ve also got a huge portfolio of work for Warp Records, Adidas, Coca-Cola, and loads of other recognisable names. Originally a team of many people, it is now just Ian Anderson behind it.
I played Wipeout when I was a kid, but I didn’t really understand it until I came back round to it as a teenager. I remember how I would zone out in school by sketching fake corporate logos in a Japanese style, very much copying what I saw in the games. While at home, I’d eventually start seeking out the music genres from the games.
In my first year at university, I worked a part-time job after my classes. I nearly always had a few hours to kill before starting a shift, so I would spend hours in Waterstones flicking through gigantic art and design books that I couldn’t afford. It was there that I was reintroduced to TDR and the rest of their work.
This was such an inspiration to me that most of my personal tastes can be traced back to Wipeout, and by extension TDR. The futuristic visuals got me into design, which got me into programming, while the thumping soundtrack pointed me towards electronic music.
That impact in my life came back into my mind when I thought about getting my first tattoo. You always overthink your first, but the more you get, the less they need to mean. I’ve only got 5 so far, and the most recent one is a weird alien eyeball thing. But that first one needed to be special, and so, my mind went to Wipeout and TDR, so I got the TDR logo tattooed.
Meet your heroes
And so, at an event hosted by Verdant Brewing, I found myself in front of Ian Anderson showing him my tattoo.
I’d never seen him in person, or even a recent photo, so when a man in his 60s arrived after everyone and was talking with the people wearing Verdant t-shirts, I guessed it might be him. I was at the bar grabbing pints for my friend and me, when one of the staff who had seen my tattoo showed it to this man. To my relief, he went, “Nice.”
The Q&A was a meandering journey of his thoughts and stories. The kind of stuff you’d see in Mad Men if it was set in the 2000s in London.
Like all chats these days, it veered into the topic of AI in art. I’m paraphrasing his response, because it was both a few weeks ago and after a few beers. From what I remember, he said:
AI makes boring art. If you enjoy that, you were boring even before AI started making art.
What a great way to put it.
At the end of the night, he was signing stuff for people, so I got him to sign my arm.
He’s the kind of artist who I fully expected to hate hero worship and call me a dickhead, so it was great to finish the night with this story that is more memorable than some signed bit of memorabilia to sell off. Unfortunately his signature was basically a scribble, so no, I have no plans to get it tattooed.
So in my experience, if you like someone’s work, tell them. They’ll appreciate it, no matter how famous they are.
Honourable mentions
- 🎮 The Séance of Blake Manor is a spooky detective game set during Halloween in Ireland in 1897. It’s full of stuff on Irish history, myths, legends, occultism, and world religions. I finished it over a week and absolutely loved it. A 10/10 game for me. I didn’t get the perfect ending, so I’ll save a replay for next Halloween.
- 🎮 Still working my way through Alan Wake 2. The jumpscares are brutal. It’s just me and the cat this weekend and one of them was so abrupt it even got her.
- 📺 As we rotated back round to Apple TV, Widow’s Bay was perfect for the Halloween period. A little predictable, but very enjoyable.
- 🎛️ I DJ’d at an open decks hardcore night this week. Normally I start around 150bpm and finish around 180, while at this night I was around 175 for the whole 30 mins. Mine was easily the most chilled out set, instead of the hardest like usual. A bit of a change and a challenge, but lots of fun.
- 🎙️ One of my brothers and his mate came to visit for a live Blindboy Podcast at The Barbican. The guest was Gary Stevenson, who was a bit soundbitey, but still a good guest. I had somewhat dropped off the podcast until this, so I listened to the next one, and it was a great episode on paganism and mythology.