What to do on a Thursday night?

Even though my arms were still hurting, having arms like Arnie, from carrying the amount of promotional stuff you pick up on your rounds at the London Design Festival, I decided I best look at all the bag of business cards, magazines, and promotional stuff I picked up. I needed to think of my absolute favourite bits of the whole event. What stands caught my eye, and made me want to come home and order a product. This got me thinking about a lighting company I came across at the Design Junction, in King’s Cross.

What struck me about this stand was the design and layout that had been used to grab consumer’s attention. It really made everyone stop and look at their product, and it was street graffiti. The stand had a huge wall with a mural that had a light bulb done in a graffiti way. The company was called Well Lit, http://www.well-lit.co.uk I absolutely loved it. I kindly got given a sample, which is proudly in my lamp right now. Well Lit are LED lighting specialists and offer sustainable lighting with a new range of flex. I am definitely going to buy some of their bulbs for my Kitchen. This also got me thinking back home about how all the street art that has evolved in Sheffield and how it has moved on in 20 years. 

So when I saw a talk being given by Kid Acne, as part of the Off The Shelf festival, I jumped at the chance. 

Arriving ten mins late, I know! out of breath, I grabbed a seat. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Having seen a little of his work, my son when he was 14 and 15 thought Kid Acne was amazing and covered his work as part of his GCSE. I wanted to understand more about street art, as it’s now called, (street art when permission is asked to paint. But is called graffiti if permission hasn’t been asked).  It is being used so much more in Interiors. 

I would often travel through Sheffield and think oh yes a Kid Acne mural, and carry on in my daily life and appreciate bits of street art. After leaving his talk, I realise how much he has achieved, on so many levels, and that he has travelled extensively during his life doing exactly what he loves, across many cities in so many parts of the world. In doing that he has become a well known Illustrator, artist, and even been a hip hop musician.

He loves doing typography and has painted quite a few typography murals all across the world, but definitely, a few in Sheffield, with slogans like YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP, and YOU WILL MISS ME WHEN I AM GONE.

It was lovely to see what he has achieved in 20 years, from doing record sleeves for the likes of Warp Records, to designing flyers for top nightclubs across the UK. To where he is now designing all the promotional content for the Off the Shelf festival. Kid Acne has been working on a project that is coming to Sheffield this October, that will involve over 15 artists creating street art murals across the city, so look out for them.

As I walked back to my car, there in front of me, stood a few street art murals, by one of my favourites, Faunagraphic, and her other half Rocket01. Street art has really developed so much in 20 years, that Cafe’s want a wall mural adding as part of their interior (Tamper Coffee). Then there are the sides of buildings being given a space, to really stand out in a creative way. 

I really see street art being used more in interiors going forward, and when I look back at some of my favourite 80’s films, that has lots of neon in, (super trend right now), I see them being used together and how that could be a new interior focus altogether. 

There I said it, I really fancy a project going forward that has street graffiti and neon used as one piece, hopefully, I can share that with you one day! 

For now, I am going to go back to my 80’s films and reminisce of the art used in the interiors of Three Men and a Baby, do you remember that?