Netrash XIX

Mirror's Edge

 Alright, in a bit of a departure from regularly scheduled programming. Today it's a video game I played recently. Don't worry though it is still design related. This game is seriously well thought out, and makes a nice change from shooting aliens or terrorists. The landscap is all primary colours and clean edges, and the soundtrack by Solar Fields really fits well with the clinical but expansive setting. Check it out:

 

The Designers Republic

Designer's Republic were badass, i mean they're not totally dead apparently but these guys were the first designers i ever really noticed when i saw their work on Wipeout for the original Playstation. And by extension, their work on making Playstation a 'cool' brand. After that they seemed to keep popping up wherever something seemed cutting-edge cool. Album covers for Autechre, working with Chris Morris, Aphex Twin, Satoshi Tomiie, Squarepusher and Warp records to name just a few. Cheeky fuckers are an inspiration to us chancers everywhere too as they show in this interview with the Creative Review from january '09

  
     “People used to say ‘you’re at Designer’s Republic because you break the rules’ and we’d say ‘we’re not really, we just don’t know the rules… Every time someone rang up about work we’d put the phone down, piss ourselves laughing and say ‘one day someone’s going to suss out that we don’t know what we’re doing’,” admits Anderson happily. “We used to take on students for work placement so that we could learn from them. I got my first lesson in typography from someone at a typesetters who was sick of trying to work out my instructions.”

They still have one of the coolest websites on the internet which is either unfinished or dead or both or neither. I can't figure it out. I'm pretty sure they're not done yet though. Check it out at -

  http://www.pho-ku.com/