This Summer the Millennium Galleries is showcasing the vibrant cutting-edge work of The Designers Republic in their collection of Brain Aided Designs.
Based in Sheffield, their work is internationally copied and acclaimed, ranging from designs for Coca Cola, Orange and Nike to Supergrass, Gatecrasher and Issey Miyake. The gallery is a whirl of colour and words, with moving video images and a red bench with the blaring white letters: 'Let us prey'. It is thought-provoking and challenging. There are designs here you'll have seen before but not in this light. Each design strengthens or changes how you view the next one. A poster exclaims, 'Let's hear it for Consumer Fascism', suggesting the way we are passive receptors to a media culture, while the small print declares that '50,000 commercials' are 'seen by Americans by age 18'. 50,000...can you believe that! | "50,000 commercials are seen by Americans by age 18" | | The Designers Republic |
A series of posters declares the benefits of 'The Bank of Jesus'. Here they say we can go to Life After Death Insurance.com. Everything can be purchased by consumers now, even Heaven. 'Empty the bones of me' declares a cartoon of a figure falling into a pit of consumerism. The jerky motif of little areoplanes is used for the darting movement and internationality of the consumer culture. I've seen the Gatecrasher publicity before, but surrounded by the rest of the exhibition the 'Gatecrasher Global sound system' with its bright arrows and slogan 'North of Nowhere' invited different meanings.
This is the same with promotion for music acts you will have seen before such as for Liberty X, Pulp and Supergrass, or for fashion with Issey Miyake and Dior Homme. Quotes from The Designers Republic themselves can be found on the front wall. Ian Anderson from The Designers Republic says: 'We're more interested in questions than answers. There is no one truth. In Disinformation we Trust.' This idea can be found amongst the words and designs as we are asked to interpret them our own way. I caught up with two young design students, Hannah Edyvean, a Textiles student at Leeds University, and Jonathan Shaw, an Architecture student at Sheffield Uni, to ask them what they thought of the exhibition. Which design jumped out at you the most?
Hannah: I'd say the design saying 'Department stores are our new cathedrals'. It's the most obviously about consumerism. It's scary to think of it as a religion. People get fanatical about religion so you wouldn't think that about consumerism. Jonathan: I think the 'Kill Your Self' design, with the words 'Kill Your Self' repeated backwards all over a man's body and face. It's about people losing their identity, where all products and everything are the same. It doesn't matter what they wear. And the use of skin care products in the background suggests what we're doing to ourselves...
Would you recommend the exhibition to young people? Hannah: Definitely. Young people can get something out it; and it's brightly coloured and interesting. Jonathan: What's good about it is that you've got to read and understand it which makes you draw more meaning from it. You have to think about it too. Not everything's there for you. | 
