TDR™40 - Work, Buy, Consume, Die - Screenprint

A true Holy Grail of The Designers Republic™.

Previous editions of Work, Buy, Consume, Die are held in the permanent collection of the V&A. It was acquired as part of the Shekou Project, an international partnership between the V&A and China Merchants Shekou Holdings (CMSK) to open a new cultural platform called Design Society in Shekou. It featured in the inaugural exhibition, Values of Design in a section exploring identity and branding as a value in design. Since then, the work has been exhibited internationally, cementing its status as one of TDR's most iconic images.

To mark forty years of The Designers Republic, we've created an entirely new edition of this landmark design. Produced in a vibrant fluorescent red, this anniversary release has been conceived as a distinct commemorative edition — not a reprint compromising any previous release. It celebrates the legacy of the original while preserving the rarity and significance of the earlier limited editions.

"The Pho-Ku Corporation's consumerist manifesto in four words. In a world and a time where fast food and fizzy drink brands were becoming omnipresent and omnipotent in our culture, the talk was of brands, such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola, encouraging consumers to think, not that they were thirsty, but that they wanted a Max, or a Coke. Salvation through refreshment… and we were a new generation and we wanted to believe that was our choice… let’s be honest, we wanted to believe. We had sugar-addicted fascinations with instant hits and the bright light consumer neon-propaganda of Shibuya and Shinjuku — the future was aglow with the Rising Sun. The Pho-Ku Corporation, motto Work Buy Consume Die, was imagined there, a department store cathedral for a disposable product consumer experience.

Filter this thinking and the output is a ‘Pepsi-esque’ meets Japanese flag full-faux cola, with a mark that to the left 'reads' (for non-japanese speakers) ‘DR’, based on the bastardisation of two Japanese characters to 'DR', and to the right, the Japanese for 'Cola' — DR Cola." — Ian Anderson (@iantdr)

For generations of designers, Work, Buy, Consume, Die has become more than an iconic print. It stands as a defining piece of graphic design that turns the language of advertising back on itself, using the visual tools of commercial design not to sell, but to the addiction to buy… to question the systems of branding, consumption and identity that shape modern culture, and the moral obligation to spend spend spend in a consumer society…

Limited Edition Screenprint

Hand-stamped, embossed, signed and numbered.

500 × 700 mm.

Edition of 40.

Munken Design Polar Rough Crisp White 300 gsm.

Two-colour Black and Aqua Art Fluorescent inks.

Screen printed at Imp. Studio, Sheffield, UK.

TDR™40 2026.