More work from Alex Jenkins

Link: Alex Jenkins' Tumblr
Link: Alex Jenkins' Twitter

I previously posted some artwork by designer Alex Jenkins and have since been sent some better quality images by the man himself - including a number of projects that I hadn't picked up on.

As in-house designer for XL Recordings, Jenkins produced a series of memorable sleeves for The Prodigy dating back to 'Firestarter'. His Tumblr documents some of this material alongside additional photography credits and the stories attached to their creation - including the un-used 'Kebab' cover for Fat of the Land that involved a £13,000-£14,000 shoot with the surplus doner meat finding its way into the stomachs of London customers. [Doubt the same fate was dealt to the crab that was used for the finished album.] Another meaty offering also came in the shape of his cleverly vacuum-packed 'salami' CD that featured a sample of tracks from XL's roster.

Anyway, it's a diverse collection that followed on from Jenkins' uni hand-in that consisted of his re-imagining of the packaging for Orbital's first album, and - as a single body of work - appears to be united by the employment of gritty textures. The most complete sets have to be the beautiful deteriorated and stained Breakbeat Era campaign (complete with budget-busting bookbinding materials) plus his collection of nocturnal urban imagery for The Streets (including that iconic Clipper lighter logo that knowingly taps into stoner culture). The latter was developed for 679 Records as a freelance project while Jenkins' other non-XL commissions have come from the UK garage-oriented Locked On label, the progressive house-biased Y2K imprint and Freskanova Records' The Freestylers. However, what's not featured below is a succession of Jenkins' identity/branding assignments for other industries that only further demonstrate his ability to shift from fairly niche products to design for high-profile clients.

Artwork by Alex Jenkins

Link: Alex Jenkins

Alex Jenkins is predominently known for his work as inhouse designer at XL Recordings. His most recognised sleeve is The Prodigy's Fat of the Land but he has also created work for one-off singles. His portfolio includes UK garage-oriented material for sub-label Locked On and, artist, The Streets while, additionally, he devised the look of the records for the drum & bass-propelled Jonny L and Breakbeat Era plus a featured release by The Freestylers.

What I like about this work is the idea of a colour-coded, perhaps collectible set (as with the Locked On releases) and the feeling of a 'used' product (again, with Locked On and also evident in the Breakbeat Era series). There's a utilitarian aesthetic from both the stencil text and the bold sans serif fonts that I think is also important in terms of continuing a lineage of underground club records as functional items. However, they are - as with some of the other images that I'll be referencing - of a particular age while very much in tune with the scenes that they represented.