Kid Acne
Kid Acne - real name : Ed is a fine artist/graphic designer/rapper. He currently lives in Sheffield and has had a recent exhibition of his work in millenium gallery in Sheffield. Ed's first commission was doing the record sleeve for London based Warp Records. As a rap artist he did his first record and designed the sleeve for it in his bedroom called "rap traffic". He started off with doing a comic called Zebra Face in 1995-2000.
As he lives in Sheffield he did a commission for a club called 'NY Sushi' which was a big club and did the promotions and flyers for it but also preformed there. As Kid Acne started to become more recognised he had done designs for Levi's in London,Berlin and Paris. After he had done this promotion he released his 2nd album called "council pop". After he did his album he did the cover sleeve for French rappers TTC album cover who became very famous in Paris which promoted his art work.
He then got asked to go onto a boat party in Paris and illustrate what he drew with a list of added characters into it. But to do this he sketched little sections of it on A3 paper because he liked working raw and scanned it into the computer and used photoshop to design it as he didn't know how to use illustrator. This is the outcome:
I like this illustration the best because its so creative and unlike anything you would see, Everytime you look at it you see something new. I like the way he was given a place to go and a list of things to add to it for example the giraffe, the Bee and a Vegetables and he just ran with the idea to make it unique and his work. I also like how it works in black and white because in colour it would be very distracting.
Ed liked going to Barcelona especially because you were allowed to do graffiti almost risk free because it wasn't against the law and you wouldn't get arrested like you would in most countries. It was a way to express himself and get his work recognised. He then started doing them in England in east London and Sheffield, for example he did a graffiti painting on a wall near his home for valentines day shortly after he was dumped to express his feelings which then looked like this :
"Romance aint dead"
I liked this graffiti because valentines day is ment to be romantic and loving and he expressed and tried to communicate a different side to this within his images with the caption of being romance aint dead by using a skeleton to represent the dead and by using pink as a romantic colour but adding black as a death colour. I think he has communicated the theme/caption of his image well through this image by using the techniques of a skeleton with the colours he uses. Kid acne has communicated this well through his images. I also like how the photo was take with the old couple who are looking at it. His commission then progressed into designing t-shirt designs for Prada which sold for over £100 each. After he began designing for fashion his friends girlfriend did knitwear and used his designs to nit into the jumpers which then were photographed fr supercult in London.
Kid Acne then preached to his youth and did designs for Unabommer skateboard designs which sold very well. Whilst doing all this commissions of drawings of cartoons he was starting to do word slogan Graffiti starting off in Germany and travelling all over the world back to sheffield. Ed then started making quirky adult toys which were collectables of cartoon animals called "Rollin Stock".
Whilst he was travelling round the world he made little characters at the bottom of dors around the world and ended up with about 500 worldwide for example in New York, Paris, Brazil and Barcelona. He then had the idea to make real life versions and make videos out of it.
As he became more famous and worldwide becks beer asked his to illustrate his favourite album cover so he did Pauls Boutique by the Beasty Boys. As he became to experiment more he got inspired by Roy Lichenstiens pop art and incorporated it into his illustrations. With Ed sticking to his artist side he did alot of life drawings/still life but found it challenging. Kid Acne refused to change his style of work for anyone and Elle magazine admired that so asked him to draw illustrations over there model photos for their magazine. Over the years he has progressed to become more famous by displaying his work in different ways but not once changed his designs of his work which is what i like the most about his work. I like his work alot i think its a good way of expressing yourself creatively but from a photographers point of view he hasnt inspired my work. I think his purpose was too reach his audience which can be youth by designing colouring books and adults by doing collectable toys and t-shirt designs.
