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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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'.
The series then acquired a 6-episode deal on Channel U
(now named
Total Country) and recorded a music video with UK Garage producer 'Sticky'
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"
Creative consultant
From 2009 - 2013 Johnson worked as a freelance consultant providing strategy for various fashion brands
creating campaigns such as the 'adidas About to Blow London Olympics 2012' campaign featuring
Tinie Tempah and
Mo Farah.
Dubstep / EDM / Grime
Johnson was responsible for design collaborations with
dubstep /
techno artists such as
Appleblim,
Addison Groove, Pinch, Komonazmuk, Joker (
Kapsize) and 2562.
The most notable being an Audio Visual live show with Headhunter (
Dubstep) now called
Addison Groove.
He also directed music videos for
Appleblim and
Addison Groove.
The most notable was 'Changa' which premiered on the
Adult Swim YouTube Channel
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.
His work has been mentioned in books including:
Dubstep Graphics and
Contemporary Colour Theory.
Artwork has been featured in Vice
Adult Swim
Tech Crunch
and includes collaborations with musician
Tinie Tempah.
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.
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
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.
Hyper Island
The business school
Hyper Island recruited Johnson between 2014–2017 to teach 'storytelling' to the motion creative course in Stockholm/Karlskrona.
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 SE, The Drone Racing League and
Blockchain.
Their most recent work includes branding the sport of the future 'Drone Racing'
