| Artist | Age Of Chance |
| Title | One Thousand Years Of Trouble |
| Label | Virgin |
| Year | 1987 |
| Design | “One thousand years of artwork made by The Designers Republic” |
| Music | Rock-meets-hiphop |
| Desktop | Download image |
| Notes | 1987 was the year that Public Enemy broke and three years after Frankie Goes To Hollywood released Two Tribes. Where ZTT’s design predictably placed Ronald Reagan and Lenin on opposite sides of the 12″ sleeve, The Designers Republic and Age of Chance deliver something much more impressive. TDR founder Ian Anderson has said that Age of Chance provided so much inspiration in terms of slogans and ideas that all he felt half the job was already done before he started work.
One Thousand Years Of Trouble combines attitude, provocation and (then) contemporary iconography to produce a cover that’s as striking today as it was in 1987 – and as likely to put a great big grin on your face. It’s archetypal early period Designers Republic. The front cover merges the symbolism of bombs, medals, the superpowers of the USSR and the USA, skyscrapers, globalisation and, slyly, design itself. The black and white strip on the right side literally and metaphorically knocks the impact just off centre, as if to ask ‘What’s underneath all this? What comes next? It’s essential to the success of the design.The chevrons that encircle the red star point in opposite directions. There’s an empty space where the two will meet. This is the moment before they do so. It’s the Age of Chance. The star, symbolic of both socialism and the American states tilts backwards, providing a sense of implied depth. And the medal? Buy the album, receive an award for bravery, loyalty or daring. Wear it with pride. Flip the cover and all hell breaks loose: there’s that angled red star again (pointing into the future?), but it’s just one anchoring element in a blizzard of signs and declamation framed by the black and white strip that appears on the side of the front cover: Are They Real? ENERGY + POWER = DESTRUCTION LOUDNESS IS A FORCE CHILL BOMB CARNAGE 100 TO 1000 THIS IS MORAL CHAOS AS WAS PLANNED… The barrage continues on the inner sleeve: Oliver North (Iran-Contra scandal), NASA technicians, Zola Budd (South African runner given UK immigration priority), missiles raining down on the Bayeux Tapestry knights, a variation on the medieval knight lined up between cruise missiles, the knight’s head replaced by a satellite encircled by the words ‘anything can happen in the next half hour’. All of this underpinned by the declaration: CRUSH Age of Chance espoused no defined political affiliation. Like the Futurists before them they celebrated the flavour of modern life, its frenetic tempo and deafening noise. The group itself was short-lived, but they gave The Designers Republic their opportunity to begin developing a distinctive visual language that brilliantly articulated the zeitgeist. See also: |
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