Artist Highlight: Limbo and Ginger

New artists on the East End Prints block are Limbo and Ginger. We absolutely adore their designs that are musically themed. Sarah and Liam somehow seamlessly blend classic subjects with modern takes on vintage typography. 

Can you introduce yourself for our readers?

Hello! We're Liam and Sarah... we're married and we have a little boy called Frank who is nearly 3, and we’re about to have a lockdown baby too! An annoying guy at work used to call me Limbo all the time, and Sarah is ginger, so that's where our name comes from! I’m Head of Creative at a design agency, and Sarah is a 3D Visualiser for her own company. We wanted to set something up together to work on in our spare time (not that we get any haha) and we both love prints and artwork, so Limbo and Ginger was born.

Where is home for you at the moment?

We live in Stretford, Manchester.

Tell us about the process of creating your designs as Limbo and Ginger?

Our designs and ideas come about in loads of different ways. Some just start out as a scribble, or we might hear a lyric we like, or there might be a set idea we work towards. Any time we have ideas we write them in our little book and revisit and decide which ones would be cool to work on next. As we’re not full time with this we get to step back sometimes which is a nice way of refining our designs or ideas. We both have a strong idea of what we feel is good and has style, and thankfully that matches most of the time, so there aren’t too many design disagreements in the Limbo and Ginger household.

All our finished designs have to be something that we would hang on our own wall… that’s our final quality control test before we decide if something is good enough for our website haha!

Did you study art and design formally? If so, where and what did you study?

Sarah has a Fine Art degree from Manchester Met, and a Masters in 3D & Exhibition Design from Lincoln School of Architecture. I’ve got a Graphic Design degree from The University of Salford.

Do you have any funny anecdotes from being a young artist or student that you’d be willing to share?

Not from student days, but Sarah’s first design job was working for a design agency that was so shit, that she had to spend a week designing her boss’ wife's dream. I once got in a bit of trouble at work for hiding stills from 70’s porn in the typography of menu headers at a well-known bar chain haha!

What are some of the thoughts or influences that are fuelling the direction of your current work?

We’re constantly on the look out for things that inspire us or make us smile… Music is always a big influence on our work, plus we both love old science fiction books. In terms of things that influence us, we have a massive research file on our desktops full of thousands and thousands of things we’ve cobbled together over the years, basically anything and everything that we like… old vintage prints, record covers, book covers, art, 70s packaging, old kids book, lettering, colours, illustrations, old science manuals, and just designs with happy vibes… probably too many things to list!

What kind of music do you have on your playlist to get you in the creative swing?

We always work with music on. We love all sorts of stuff… funk, soul, reggae, hip hop, afrobeat, disco… basically something with a bit of a groove. Talking Heads, Roxy Music and XTC are on quite a lot too! Plus we’re partial to the odd bit of 70’s rock like The Tubes. Actually thinking about it, The Tubes record covers are one of the things that got me interested in design in the first place as my dad had them all on vinyl, and they are just amazing!

How are you dealing with the current lock down situation, any tricks to keep concentration or ways to unwind the mind?

We moved into our house about 2 weeks before lockdown happened, and as Sarah is heavily pregnant we’ve actually been having a nice time together hidden away from the world. Tips to unwind the mind? Don’t have a child first or during it haha! Failing that… loads of music, cooking, sweets, Clarence on Netflix, baking muffins, sitting in the sun and coffee. As soon as Sarah has given birth we’ll be adding Margaritas to that list!

Who are your favourite inspirational artists, makers or thinkers and why?

Oooo never really take time to think about that. We take inspiration from loads of different people, but here’s some people who sprung to mind when we did think about it!

Mr Scruff - being a resident of Manchester for so long, Mr Scruff has been a big part of the culture and our life here. Amazing DJ who’s been running his night for 20 years, releases his own music, he owns a cool cafe in the Northern Quarter, he’s an illustrator and has his own brand of tea! Also a thoroughly nice man when we’ve had chance to say hello.

60s / 70s Science Fiction writers - We both love old Science Fiction novels, and this era was especially amazing. Without sounding like knobs, we love the way they look at the world and the metaphysical philosophy of their stories. And they all had amazing artwork for the book covers too… we have an ace little collection going.

John James Audubon - we love all old vintage botanical and natural history artists. Audubon has always been a favourite of ours… he was famous for his incredible work ‘Birds of America’ which he did in the 1800s.

Anna Bond ‘Rifle Paper Company’ - Just beautiful modern botanical paintings, prints and patterns… and she knows her colours!

Anna Kovecses - We love her simplistic colourful illustrations using block shapes. A big favourite in our house!

Nobrow Press - Sarah has always bought her dad these as presents as they’re just beautifully designed and illustrated books.

What’s in your glass or mug in the studio?

I always have a cup of coffee on the go. Sarah is a tea and orange cordial kind of girl (not together).

What’s the last book you read?

I put Frank to bed every night, so the last book I read is the kids illustrated version of Back to the Future. Sarah has just finished reading The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney.

Quickfire:

What’s your go to sandwich filling? Bacon, always.

Cats or dogs or both? Cats

What's the best song to play to shake off your worries? Sabotage by Beastie Boys is Frank’s favourite song, so probably that.

Would you rather be 5 minutes late or 20 minutes early? We’d like to be early people. But we’re always 20 minutes late even if we try to get somewhere early. We’re famous for it.

**Since this interview baby number 2, Rudy, arrived for Sarah, Liam and Frank. Congratulations guys! **