From the Victoria and Albert Museum:
‘Work Buy Consume Die’ is the slogan of the imaginary Pho Ku Corporation invented by The Designers Republic, a Sheffield based graphic design agency. Disenchanted with corporate driven consumerism in the 1990s, but acknowledging their role as a brand agency in the process, The Designers Republic devised an anti-corporate identity to counter the forces of global branding. The design is inspired by Japanese graphic design and also subverts the Pepsi Cola logo as a comment on the force of global branding.
The primary font on the poster is Amalgamation, which can also be seen on The Designers Republic’s covers for Pop Will Eat Itself and in the Wipeout series of games. The smaller text uses Helvetica. Below the barcode in OCR-B is the text “NO47H OF NOWH343” — leetspeak for “north of nowhere”, referencing The Designers Republic’s location in Sheffield.
The Japanese text, which reads “Wasu Cola”, may be custom lettering. “Wasu” (ワス) is meaningless, but was chosen for its resemblance to the letters DR.
Another version, with slightly different text
On display in the Ginza Graphic Gallery in 2011
1 Comment on “Work Buy Consume Die poster”
Thank you for bringing some classic tDR to Fonts In Use!
I’ve created a typeface page and added some info to it. My understanding is that Amalgamation is not the original name. In the 2024 monograph WipEout Futurism: The Graphic Archives, it’s referred to as “repurposed Pop Will Eat Itself font” and “Anti-Gravity Racing League official custom typeface”. There are small differences between these two versions, probably most notable in Q and X.
Amalgamation is the name of a fan-made version that’s available from an unofficial Pop Will Eat Itself website. Version 1.1 of this uncredited bootleg is from 2006/2007, according to the meta data. It apparently was named after the band’s 1994 compilation album.