Wipeout (1995

Wipeout is a futuristic racing game developed by Psygnosis and released in 1995 for the Sony Playstation. The cover and in-game user interface was designed by the Sheffield-based graphic design firm The Designers Republic. TDR is known for their forward-thinking rave-inspired maximalist design compositions and Wipeout is the most significant work in their portfolio. 

TDR as a design firm is mostly involved with album cover designs, being the go-to firm for Warp Records, also based in Sheffield. Warp is the defining label for the British electronic music scene and TDR’s graphic design carved out the visual style for electronic music in the 90s. TDR’s prominence in electronic music was a perfect fit for Wipeout, which featured several electronic music artists for the game’s soundtrack. 

Wipeout is TDR’s strongest showcase of their excellence at visual brand direction. Wipeout’s cover design makes the game stand out from the rest of the Playstation catalogue due to its rejection of 3D visuals in exchange for a vectorized design. The cover continues TDR’s recurring implementation of multiple logos in the composition, demonstrating the depth of the games world-building with its multiple racing teams. The cover also features Japanese typography as a callback to 80s style Japanese-dominated techno futurism. TDR embodies the speed of racing with the blurred kanji in the background of the design. TDR also created a custom typeface for the Wipeout branding, which is prominently displayed on the disc design. 

TDR would continue to work on the Wipeout franchise for the next three entries before leaving the series. TDR’s work on Wipeout subverted the design standards of the time by merging underground design trends with the emerging medium of video games to create something worth more than the sum of its parts.