01Profile
A Jack Kimberley Photo
Jack Kimberley
Designer — Birmingham
03Interview
Name
Jack Kimberley
Where are you from?
Birmingham
What do you do?
Graphic design, type design.
Describe your style in three words
Imagine old types from the past but from a different universe, Almost hauntological.... Dystopian Post Present.
What have you been up to?
I’ve just graduated and have just started doing my own stuff. When I was in design education, I found it bizarrely reductive. Since, I’ve got a studio in a disused office building with my friend. It’s about £30 a month and it’s got electricity and heating and that’s about it. So I’ve been holed up in there doing exactly what I wanna do in the days. I have another job in the evening, but I’m happy with this arrangement.
I’ve been doing music posters for a night called Treehouse in London, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester, among others.
Do you have any down time?
Not really, we work in a night club, all our crew. So we have no life pattern really. There’s no on or off. So we listen to really jacked up music to stay awake.
02Playlist
04Playlist Notes
What was the first song you played on repeat?
I had a tape player, a Walkman that my mum gave me. Robbie Williams; Rock DJ. “If you can’t get a girl and your best friend can…” I used to listen to it on the way to my Nan’s in Nechells by Lozells in Birmingham. I only had that one song on a tape.
Describe the sound of your youth
I remember we got Freeview when I was very young, in about 2001. And so the songs I remember hearing all the time growing up were The Calling: Wherever You Will Go, Nelly & Kelly – Dilemma. Anything on The Music Factory, quite poppy.
But my dad had loads of ACDC and Black Sabbath records.
We used to go to car boots together - that was our thing. We had a bootleg copy of Goldie Lookin Chain and a copy of The Streets - Has it Come to This. That was probably the second song I heard on repeat. There was swearing in it so if my mum wasn’t there we’d listen to it in the car. The Streets, that song, it’s been at so many points of my life. That album is sick.
Is there a song that defines the teenage you?
The teenage me was angsty as hell. I was a raw kid. I used to bootleg loads of beats off Limewire like really early grime, Jme, Trim and Oddz. I was mad into that. I’d use my computer and I’d make my own grime beats on Fruity Loops prior to any sort of interest in art. That was when I was about 15 and they’re probably still on the internet somewhere.
Is there one particular stand out track from that time?
On Jme’s first mix tape, there’s a freestyle, just called Freestyle and that’s the one that sticks in my head. At the time, five to ten years ago, no one cared about grime, it wasn’t considered particularly cool.
What do you listen to today?
My flatmate is a club tracks DJ so I forcibly listen to techno and club tracks – Jersey Club he used to like but he’s gone off that now.
Day to day I listen to loads of hardcore punk, like Agnostic Punk, Minor Threat, I like a bit of Gang Green. I listen to grime, but not that much stuff. It’s mainly radio sets. I like Jazz, Sun Ra, Chet and also a little Mid-Western emo.
One I think I listen to constantly and it does my flat mate’s head in; 50 Cent’s second mix tape Guess Who’s Back is the sickest rap tape ever made, ever ever.
It’s really motivating. I listen to that and I buy UK hardcore records like Fantazia, with the really euphoric chord versions. It’s so cheesy and good, it’s great. I Need Your Lovin (real hardcore mix) by NRG is my favourite.
What’s the best night you’ve ever been to?
There’s a party in Manchester called Swing Ting – I’ve had some of the best nights of my existence there. From being at uni, even to now it’s still great. I remember going to see Jamie T – I’m a really big fan of old Jamie T, the B sides. I went to see him play in Nottingham a couple of years ago and that was probably the best gig.
Do any album artwork covers stand out to you visually?
There’s this guy called David Rudnick, he does some stuff for Optimo, making time and he does RL grime and Evian Christ, that wave of stuff. He’s like God to me, he’s the best. He does tons of their album art work. For Evian Christ he made a font called HyperZeit and he uses it throughout his work and it’s on the original art work & website in white. Early in my design education, finding his work presented an alternative to the middle class white design discourse and it means a lot to me.
Do you have any tips for 2017?
What’s gonna come back, in my opinion… Because Trap is really big - Old Memphis rap like Tommy Wright III, Feel Me Before They Kill Me or Princess Loko. You can mix it into everything. It mixes nice into UK funky as well.
03Interview
Name
Jack Kimberley
Where are you from?
Birmingham
What do you do?
Graphic design, type design.
Describe your style in three words
Imagine old types from the past but from a different universe, Almost hauntological.... Dystopian Post Present.
What have you been up to?
I’ve just graduated and have just started doing my own stuff. When I was in design education, I found it bizarrely reductive. Since, I’ve got a studio in a disused office building with my friend. It’s about £30 a month and it’s got electricity and heating and that’s about it. So I’ve been holed up in there doing exactly what I wanna do in the days. I have another job in the evening, but I’m happy with this arrangement.
I’ve been doing music posters for a night called Treehouse in London, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester, among others.
Do you have any down time?
Not really, we work in a night club, all our crew. So we have no life pattern really. There’s no on or off. So we listen to really jacked up music to stay awake.
04Playlist Notes
What was the first song you played on repeat?
I had a tape player, a Walkman that my mum gave me. Robbie Williams; Rock DJ. “If you can’t get a girl and your best friend can…” I used to listen to it on the way to my Nan’s in Nechells by Lozells in Birmingham. I only had that one song on a tape.
Describe the sound of your youth
I remember we got Freeview when I was very young, in about 2001. And so the songs I remember hearing all the time growing up were The Calling: Wherever You Will Go, Nelly & Kelly – Dilemma. Anything on The Music Factory, quite poppy.
But my dad had loads of ACDC and Black Sabbath records.
We used to go to car boots together - that was our thing. We had a bootleg copy of Goldie Lookin Chain and a copy of The Streets - Has it Come to This. That was probably the second song I heard on repeat. There was swearing in it so if my mum wasn’t there we’d listen to it in the car. The Streets, that song, it’s been at so many points of my life. That album is sick.
Is there a song that defines the teenage you?
The teenage me was angsty as hell. I was a raw kid. I used to bootleg loads of beats off Limewire like really early grime, Jme, Trim and Oddz. I was mad into that. I’d use my computer and I’d make my own grime beats on Fruity Loops prior to any sort of interest in art. That was when I was about 15 and they’re probably still on the internet somewhere.
Is there one particular stand out track from that time?
On Jme’s first mix tape, there’s a freestyle, just called Freestyle and that’s the one that sticks in my head. At the time, five to ten years ago, no one cared about grime, it wasn’t considered particularly cool.
What do you listen to today?
My flatmate is a club tracks DJ so I forcibly listen to techno and club tracks – Jersey Club he used to like but he’s gone off that now.
Day to day I listen to loads of hardcore punk, like Agnostic Punk, Minor Threat, I like a bit of Gang Green. I listen to grime, but not that much stuff. It’s mainly radio sets. I like Jazz, Sun Ra, Chet and also a little Mid-Western emo.
One I think I listen to constantly and it does my flat mate’s head in; 50 Cent’s second mix tape Guess Who’s Back is the sickest rap tape ever made, ever ever.
It’s really motivating. I listen to that and I buy UK hardcore records like Fantazia, with the really euphoric chord versions. It’s so cheesy and good, it’s great. I Need Your Lovin (real hardcore mix) by NRG is my favourite.
What’s the best night you’ve ever been to?
There’s a party in Manchester called Swing Ting – I’ve had some of the best nights of my existence there. From being at uni, even to now it’s still great. I remember going to see Jamie T – I’m a really big fan of old Jamie T, the B sides. I went to see him play in Nottingham a couple of years ago and that was probably the best gig.
Do any album artwork covers stand out to you visually?
There’s this guy called David Rudnick, he does some stuff for Optimo, making time and he does RL grime and Evian Christ, that wave of stuff. He’s like God to me, he’s the best. He does tons of their album art work. For Evian Christ he made a font called HyperZeit and he uses it throughout his work and it’s on the original art work & website in white. Early in my design education, finding his work presented an alternative to the middle class white design discourse and it means a lot to me.
Do you have any tips for 2017?
What’s gonna come back, in my opinion… Because Trap is really big - Old Memphis rap like Tommy Wright III, Feel Me Before They Kill Me or Princess Loko. You can mix it into everything. It mixes nice into UK funky as well.