ShyBrainsGetNowt, aka Kelv, is an artist and graphic designer based out of East London, UK. Armed with a scalpel, a scanner, and a sixteen year old laser printer, he makes warped and wonky Xerox collage prints that fall somewhere between spooky and playful.
After studying Industrial Design at University in the North-East of England, Kelv moved to London and has worked as a packaging designer and senior creative for fifteen years, creating products and packaging for the world’s most recognised stores. His early life in Teesside also gave a name to the project – a play on the North-East phrase ‘shy bairns get nowt’ (used to encourage kids to speak up and not be too quiet).
ShyBrainsGetNowt started as a hobby on the side – an outlet to experiment with more analogue design techniques and make something that he thought was cool. Initially it provided a chance for Kelv to explore his own style without having to work to a brief, but has slowly evolved into an online store selling prints, products, and stickers.
The inspiration for the project comes from a lifelong love of punk rock, and the stark, gritty photocopied flyers and printed media that came to define it. This is mixed with a variety of influences; from H.P. Lovecraft, to professional wrestling, and everything in between – creating a light-hearted, cartoony twist on the scuffed and grungy medium.
Working so long in a field that requires precision and an eye for detail, means every misshapen slip and distorted wobble brings Kelv a sense of subversive joy – like it shouldn’t be allowed, and seems to instil a more tangible feeling into the pieces, which often have the effect of physical depth to them even when printed.
His most involved piece to date is a deck of poker cards, successfully crowd-funded in 2023. Every suit on every card was individually printed, cut out, and pasted back down – creating a truly unique set of cards, designed as an antidote to the more sophisticated, minimalist decks prevalent in the market. This is the approach used for almost all of his work; to find interesting juxtapositions and smash them together, print them out, stick them down, then scan them in as imprecisely as possible.
Moving forward, Kelv hopes to expand his range of prints, develop more physical products that can be used as vehicles for his art work, and weave in some 3D rendered elements to help Xerox art infiltrate a whole new dimension (the third one anyway)!
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