My Design Moment: James Wignall

With issue 200, we bring you our ‘Best 200 Design Moments Ever’ and as part of our celebrations, we’re asking friends of and contributors to the magazine to share their ‘design moment’ – something that inspired them or influenced them in their creative career. First up, James Wignall…

I was always much more interested in the “arty” side of things during in my childhood. However, design didn’t really appear on my radar. To me design was the boring straight-lined ruler drawings we did in D.T classes before we got to the fun stuff.

The year was 1995, and this was the year WipEout on the PlayStation 1 was released. I was a young and impressionable 13 year-old and I’d never seen anything like it before. It wasn’t just the amazing 3D graphics, it was more than that, running much deeper. It was the amazing design work from Sheffield’s finest, The Designers Republic. There was no going back, the flame had been lit! Inspired by what I had seen I delved into the world of Photoshop.

No longer was it a mere tool to create fake IDs for friends; now I wanted to create whole worlds and universes! I would follow the company closely for years to come; indeed I still have a drawer full of fliers it designed for the NY Sushi club nights in Sheffield and a shelf of their books too.

Even though nowadays it might not be as obvious, I like to think a little bit of the tDR influence lives on in everything I do.

If you haven’t yet checked out issue 200, pick up a copy here and see the making of the cover – including our exclusive video – here.