Department Stores are our New Cathedrals (89/90)

3-4 years in to The Designers Republic it was still a done thing to send Xmas cards to suppliers and clients. We wanted to do something more personal / more on (our) brand / less mass consumer to capture something of what we felt had become the true essence of the season. We also wanted to create something that positioned us, and whatever we did, as being not just for Xmas.

So we designed and screen printed these Seasonal posters (100 of each) and delivered them just before Xmas so they’d be ripe and ready to unwrap and display in time for ‘back to work' in the New Year.

The Department Stores print was the first iteration (89/90) of the (still) ongoing project to illustrate the lyrics to The Pop Group’s ‘We Are All Prostitutes’ under the banner of The Godlike Genius of Mark Stewart. The design itself is an adaptation of TDR’s pre-Angry man eagle logo hijacked and designed to reflect the Cold War Collision between the American and Russian eagles — the two not-so-different republics ideologically pulling the world apart at its seems, Merry Xmas. Even then. Design artworked mechanically with bureau output Freehand typography, Rotring-drawn PMT-ed graphics, Letraset and photocopies, and screen printed by Martin Beresford at The Leadmill.

Hey! Think! It Ain’t Illegal Yet was the follow up (90/91) — a confusion of ideas around the contradictions of the season wrapped up in fluorescent snow-baubles. Same same but different, counting the sheep mentality of spend spend spend consumerism flash feeding shiny gifts as emotional payola — all megaphoned through and ‘dressed-up nice’ as a screen printed P(Antone)-Funk mantra printed 2-up to crop to a vertical banner.

There were a couple of uncut proofs and we found one as well as a couple of cut down ones. 

Both sets of prints have been at the back of plan chests for several years… they are in good condition (no discolouration) but are slightly studio worn.

The Department Stores print measures 500x743mm.