REQUIEM FOR A REPUBLIC: WIPEOUT DESIGN GROUP FOLDS

Sad news via design blogs this morning, as Creative Review confirms earlier speculation that Sheffield, UK design group The Designers Republic has officially folded as of this past Tuesday. The group is, of course, most recognized in the games sphere as the visual identity group behind Psygnosis/Studio Liverpool’s Wipeout series.

Its bold, flat fields of color and laser-cut sharp lines helped define not only the future-feel of the racing franchise but to an extent the PlayStation ‘experience’ itself, as it would do again — in spirit — at the launch of the PlayStation Portable, and its influence could be felt elsewhere in places like the early output of Harmonix, particularly Frequency‘s thick-vector ‘FreQs’.

The original Wipeout is available for download on the PlayStation Network (as well as the PSP’s Pure and the PSN exclusive HD remake), and, of course, as revealed earlier this week, cutout costumes will be available in February for LittleBigPlanet for your own Republic memorial levels.

The Designers Republic Is Dead; Long Live The Designers Republic [Creative Review, mitDR home, pho-ku archive, wip3out home]