Ian Anderson was born before England won the World Cup, in Croydon, London’s erstwhile orbital city of the future.
He went to school in Bracknell New Town.
He studied Philosophy at The University of Sheffield 1979 – 1982. As a designer, he is self-taught.
He declared The Designers Republic™ on Bastille Day 1986 in Sheffield, the city he dubbed SoYo™ North of Nowhere™.
TDR ™’s work is credited with defining the visual language of late 20th-century dance music, techno and the post Playstation WipEout gaming generation. Ian has collaborated with architects (publishing a book with Sadar + Vuga), branded locations with environment developers Urban Splash and RREEF, worked with fashion designers such as Issey Miyake and Comme des Garçons, and has developed global branding campaigns, identities and Special Projects for the likes of Coca-Cola, Sony (including Aibo), Nokia, Telia, MTV, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, The University of Sheffield and Manchester School of Art. He has consulted on brand comms with Pinterest in San Francisco and developed comms for special projects with Audi.
In 33 years, TDR have designed nearly 5,000 record sleeves, Ian has lectured to around 100,000 people around the world, had over 30 ‘solo’ TDR™ exhibitions and has launched The Peoples Bureau for Consumer Information and Return Power Shift Control Ltd. By day he continues to run The Designers Republic™ and as well as being a member of AGI is a writer of columns, an educator, a shown artist, a dad and, when the moon is full, DJs as Pho-Ku Polluted Rockers.
2019 sees the publication of two TDR™ books with Unit Editions — AZTDR™ and OOHAAHTDR™ and the release of a TDR™ documentary Work Buy Consume Die.
All our talks are for free (whether you are a member or not), held in English, at the auditorium of the MUDAM (the "Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean") in Luxembourg.
