Kid Acne

At just 12, Kid Acne began painting graffiti inspired by scale, colour and immediacy and knew from then, he was talented. Today, his artwork can be seen world wide in Sheffield, London, Manchester, Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Lyon, New York, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and many more in places he has travelled to and he has even worked for world's leading brands like Prada and many others.

Acne was born in South Africa and was raised in Leicestershire, he is now currently based in Sheffield; Kid Acne has released a number of records sporadically throughout the past decade in the genre of rap. They have been very successful to the young hip audiences who enjoy rap and hip-hop music. He was first inspired to write from listening to his friend’s pirate radio when he was young, he wanted to create his own music to express himself other than through his artwork.

His art career began with an appearance on Rolf's Cartoon Club at the age of twelve. Within a year, he'd started writing graffiti by its’ infinity of being anything he wanted it to be, he loved creating artwork. He has painted large murals in Sheffield and across the globe; he has designed Prada T-Shirts, skateboards, and knitwear. He also has his own spray cans and has designed a new range of toys for New York's Kid Robot brand.

With a small group of friends, he spent his teenage years making underground fanzines and releasing limited run 7's on their Invisible Spies imprint. In 2001 the comic book, Kid Acne jointly created Zebra Face with Supreme Vagabond Craftsman. The book follows the adventures of a two dimensional zebra faced superhero and his diabetic sidekick as they battle in a 2D galaxy of scattered baddies. Through indie record, book and clothes stores and by mail order, Acne proudly shifted 1000 globally with no distribution deal website or blog. Now ‘five, three minute animated pilots are being developed, as adaptations from the book’ set to screen this time next year, with new scenarios.

I think that Kid Acne's work is very original, he has created his own style over the years, bringing through what he learnt when he was young and improved on it so much. He uses bright bold colour in his graffiti work, surrounded by a thick black line to make it stand out and to catch the eye of passers by. His work is cartoon like, perhaps to promote towards younger people to inspire them into making their own art and to be original in what they do, like him. Not many graffiti artists have a cartoon theme like his; it definitely stands out from the crowd and is recognizable to almost anyone who knows anything about artwork, as it is completely original. I could use bits of his style in my own work at some point when relevant as it is effective and I really like the style. He is incredibly successful and has a large fan base across the globe.



Here is one of my favorites from a vast range of his work, I love how simple it is, a black and white image with a unique design of twins who look like they might possibly dressed as sunflowers. Their faces are strange, almost as if they are quinting at something or maybe that's just how they look.


I also like his quote pieces, I like how they are all in a similar style when it comes to the font and the actual design except with different colours, making them noticeably his as they are unique to his personality and reflect who he is. This work can be seen in many different places from sides of houses, buildings, walls and on canvas', like this particular image.