Lex Johnson

Lex Johnson is a British designer, director and creative executive. He is the founder of creative agency DAZZLE SHIP, a former lecturer at Swedish design institute Hyper Island, and the founding online director of RWD magazine and RWD Forum.

Lex Johnson
Born	London, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Citizenship	UK
Alma mater	UWE Bristol
Occupation(s)	Director and Designer
Notable work	RWD Magazine | The Booo Krooo | GoldenEye 007 | DAZZLE SHIP | Drone Racing League | Hyper Island

Career

RWD Online / RWD forum

In 2001, Johnson became founding Online Director of RWD magazine created to push UK garage, grime and dubstep, and RWD became the first platform to champion grime music and feature UK artists Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Tinchy Stryder.^[1][2][3][4]

The RWD forum is mentioned in grime MC's lyric; the most notable incidents were in its earlier years when Wiley would frequently post and often argue or troll with users.^[5] In the book This is Grime by Hattie Collins, Wiley states "the RWD forum was a good place" and Matt Mason added "Grime had always been a conversation and Alex understood this and grew RWD forums, making RWD one of the most popular music websites in the UK" ^[6][7]

During this period the website received London Business of the Year, UK Garage Awards : Best Website 2002 and Sidewinder Peoples Choice Awards : Best Magazine 2003. Johnson was also personally awarded an "Ernst & Young Future 100" Award in 2011.^[8][9][10]

The Booo Krooo

The Booo Krooo was an adult animated TV series. Lex Johnson was the producer/animator working in collaboration with Matt Mason (writor) and Julian Johnson (Art). Taking hints from underground music culture and the intersection between UK Garage and Grime, the 3 episode web series^[11] was shortly co-signed by Missy Elliott after her PR team asked to feature the artist as part of the campaign for her hit single 'Work It'.^[12][13][14] The series then acquired a 6-episode deal on Channel U^[15] (now named Total Country) and recorded a music video with UK Garage producer 'Sticky'^[16][17] known for hits such as Ms Dynamite's track (also named) 'Boo'. Music publication Ransom Note cited the series as the first 'grime comedy' saying it was 'essentially a proto(type) version of People Just Do Nothing" ^[18]

Creative consultant

From 2009 - 2013 Johnson worked as a freelance consultant providing strategy for various fashion brands ^[19] creating campaigns such as the 'adidas About to Blow London Olympics 2012' campaign featuring Tinie Tempah and Mo Farah.^[20]

Dubstep / EDM / Grime

Johnson was responsible for design collaborations with dubstep / techno artists such as Appleblim, Headhunter, Pinch, Komonazmuk, Joker (Kapsize) and 2562.^{[21][22][23][24][25]} The most notable being an Audio Visual live show with Headhunter (Tempa) now called Addison Groove.^{[26][27][28][29][30]} He also directed music videos for Appleblim and Addison Groove.^[31][32] The most notable was 'Changa' which premiered on the Adult Swim YouTube Channel ^[33] and gained official selection status and was nominated for awards at Aesthetica, London Short Film Festival, Berlin Music Video Awards, The Smalls, Stockholm Independent Film Festival.^[34] His work has been mentioned in books including: Dubstep Graphics^[35][36] and Contemporary Colour Theory.^[37][38] Artwork has been featured in Vice ^[39] Adult Swim ^[40] Tech Crunch ^[41] and includes collaborations with musician Tinie Tempah.^[42]

James Bond - GoldenEye

Johnson worked as a motion graphics director with video game developer Eurocom , commissioned by Activision to work with the James Bond franchise to develop GoldenEye 007 and 007 Legends.^[43][44][45]

Animation / Short Films

He created a handful of films entitled 'Monotone' 'Monkey Business' and 'Do Not Feed The Horses'. Screenings include : AniFest, Resfest, British Film Council and Channel Frederator^{[46][47][48][49][50]} He was invited to resident at The Pervasive Media studio in Bristol as part of art collective 'Lumiere Digitale' as Technical Director and Developer, Johnson was responsible for animation and visual art direction.^[51]

Hyper Island

The business school Hyper Island recruited Johnson between 2014-2017 to teach 'storytelling' to the motion creative course in Stockholm/Karlskrona.^[52]

DAZZLE SHIP

In 2013, Johnson founded the design and motion graphics studio - DAZZLE SHIP. The studio divides its time between self initiated projects and client service work. Their clients include Wateraid, Bloomberg, SAP, The Drone Racing League and Blockchain.^{[53][54][55][56][57][58][59]} Their most recent work includes branding the sport of the future 'Drone Racing' ^[60]

References

1. Mason, Matt (5 May 2009). The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416532200.
2. Pattenden, Siân (31 May 2012). How To Make it in the Music Business. Random House. ISBN 9781448132447.
3. Collins, Hattie; Rose, Olivia (8 September 2016). This is Grime - Hattie Collins. ISBN 9781473639294.
4. Collins, Hattie (2016). This is Grime. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9781473639270.
5. "IN CONVERSATION W/ HATTIE COLLINS: THE 'RWD FORUM' LEGACY, "WILEY BEING WILEY", LIVERPOOL STYLEE, NEW MEDIA & MORE".
6. Collins, Hattie; Rose, Olivia (8 September 2016). This is Grime - Google Books. ISBN 9781473639294.
7. Collins, Hattie (2016). This is Grime. HODDER & STOUGHTON. ISBN 9781473639294.
8. "Ernst + Young - FUTURE 100 2011 WINNERS – FULL SUMMARY". 16 November 2011.
9. "FUTURE 100 2011 WINNERS – FULL SUMMARY". 16 November 2011.
10. "RWD WINS AT THE SIDEWINDER & NSC PEOPLES CHOICE AWARDS »". from the original on 30 June 2004.
11. . Archived from the original on 17 December 2002.
12. Mason, Matt (2008). The Pirates Dilemma. US / UK: Penguin Books. pp. 215–218. ISBN 9780141920634.
13. . RWDMAG. 2002. Archived from the original on 22 November 2002.
14. . RWDmag. Archived from the original on 30 June 2004.
15. . RWDmag. Archived from the original on 22 April 2004.
16. "Sticky on Ninja Tune". Ninja Tune.
17. "The Boo Kroo Theme Music Video". YouTube. 2003.
18. "Gone To A Rave: An Incomplete History Of Grime Comedy". 20 August 2021.
19. "Ravensbourne".
20. "adidas - About to Blow".
21. "Subloaded is 6!!!". 16 September 2010.
22. "2562 unbalance".
23. "discogs". Discogs.
24. "Komonazmuk album artwork". Archived from the original on 26 December 2021.
25. "Kapsize label artwork". Archived from the original on 26 December 2021.
26. "HEADHUNTER at LEV FESTIVAL". from the original on 3 May 2010.
27. "Headhunter LIVE AV Set @ Stuk Belgium". YouTube.
28. "Headhunter LIVE with VJ". YouTube.
29. "Addison Groove's new funk-filled 'Changa' music video".
30. "Frederator Studios Blogs | Channel Frederator Blog | Monkey Business, A Channel Frederator Featured Film!". Retrieved 29 June 2020.
31. "Lose Your Mind with the Warped and Wonderful Video for Addison Groove's "Changa"".
32. "Dive into a trippy 3D world with his latest video for Addison Groove".
33. "Addison Groove - Changa (MUSIC VIDEO) | Adult Swim". YouTube.
34. "Addison Groove".
35. "DUBSTEP GRAPHICS".
36. Tàpies, Xavier A. (July 2014). DUBSTEP GRAPHICS. Graffito Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1909051119.
37. Bleicher, Steven (25 July 2012). Contemporary Color Theory. ISBN 978-1111538910.
38. Bleicher, Steven (2011). Contemporary Color: Theory and Use. CENGAGE Delmar Learning; International edition. ISBN 9781111538910.
39. Vice. "Vector Meldrew Vice".
40. Adult Swim. "Adult Swim". YouTube.
41. "Tech Crunch". 15 March 2021.
42. "Groundbreaking NFT Art Residency To Launch In The French Riviera This June".
43. "James Bond Goldeneye".
44. "007".
45. "IMDB". IMDb.
46. "MONKEY BUSINESS (2007)". from the original on 31 December 2008.
47. "Monkey Business, A Channel Frederator Featured Film!". from the original on 2 January 2009.
48. "MONOTONE (2006)". from the original on 31 December 2008.
49. "British Film Council Monkey Business".
50. "British Film Council - Monotone".
51. "Pervasive Media Bristol".
52. "Hyper Island student animations 2014: Watch 13 brilliant short animated films created with Dazzle Ship and Echoic".
53. "ALEX DONNE JOHNSON".
54. "Alex Donne-Johnson Art Director and Motion Designer".
55. "The Design Jones".
56. "GLUG PROFILES: ALEX DONNE-JOHNSON".
57. "Visiting Speaker: Alex Donne-Johnson, Art Director & Motion Designer".
58. "Prepare to be dazzled with Alex Donne Johnson".
59. "Passionate about Design".
60. "DRL Allianz World Championship // Brand Package".