The Designers Republic Is Dead; Long Live The Designers Republic

After 23 years of brain-aided communication, the much-admired, much copied studio, The Designers Republic closed for business on Tuesday. But, as its founder Ian Anderson tells CR, it will rise again

All week, rumours have been flying around the internet that DR had gone out of business. CR can confirm that it is true. On Tuesday this week, the business was closed with nine staff being made redundant. According to its founder, Ian Anderson, the studio became insolvent due to a combination of factors: "We'd lost a couple of clients, didn't win a couple of pitches, got a tax bill which should have been sorted out and wasn't and a major client who didn't pay the money they owed us – in themselves any of those things would have been fine but when they come all at once there's not much you can do."

However, while stressing that he is "gutted for the staff" and not wishing in any way to make light of the impact the studio's closure will have on them, Anderson says that, in some ways, DR coming to an end "may be a blessing in disguise."