Alan Kitching

Alan is renowned for his expressive use of wood and metal letterforms, and he’s had his work featured by major galleries, magazines and brands throughout the world. He’s an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art and Visiting Professor at the University of The Arts London.

When Alan worked on our 2020/21 handbook cover, we visited his south London studio to hear about his background and discover more about his process.

How did you become an artist?

"I was brought up in the sixties and I think the influences from that time have never left me. I wanted to be a poster artist when I was as young as seven and I used to make up adverts in my drawing book with lettering on and things like that.

My grandfather was a sign writer for British Rail. In those days it wasn't called British Rail it was called ‘London North Eastern Railway’ because I come from Darlington, County Durham, which is on the main line between Edinburgh and London – a big railway town. So when I left school in 1955, aged 14, there was no real call for poster artists because they were all making locomotives and bridges and things like that. But nevertheless I persevered.

The world is full of visual material. You are constantly blasted by adverts and billboards and TV ads. It's all words, words, words. The first thing you do at school is you're taught to read and learn the alphabet. Words and the alphabet become very powerful symbols to recognise and work with. And the world is speeding up so much – they’re talking about flying to Australia in one go. But I don't want to do that, you know. I'd rather take my time.

To start with, printing was always black ink and white paper. And if you wanted to use a colour you used red. I've been trying to kick against that my whole life – to get away from this printing background and move into another area – and I started to develop the colour thing in about 1991-1992. I was leaving the black and white behind. So I found these weird colours, like awful pinks and browns and funny greens and things, but they were interesting when you combined them with other colours. "

How do you approach your work?

As soon as I get the brief – and these days it comes on email mainly, used to come on the phone – whatever I'm doing, this takes over straight away because I believe in jumping on something immediately while it's fresh and it's there.

I do the print-out and I make doodles on the email: my first thoughts. And then those are transferred into my sketchbook. And then – it doesn't stay on the page too long – I go straight to the material I'm using which is the woodblock type and the inks and then I take it further.

The type I use is very, very old, like a hundred years old. It's still in good condition because it's made of very hard wood. Most of these letters have been cut by hand and they've been knocking around printers' workshops for generations, and the more they get used the better they are.

Featured in the July 2020 English Heritage Members' Magazine

How would you describe your work ethic?

Once you've found something that you love, then you must pursue it to the very end and keep at it and work at it. You can't just pick it up one day and leave it the next, you've got to constantly pursue it.

I'm very impressed with people like Frank Auerbach for instance, and David Hockney: I’m a big fan of those two. They work every day; Hockney draws every day, Auerbach paints every day. And they're both older than me! And I admire that tenacity of intent, forever striving at something. And they don't give up, they keep at it. I think as a designer you should do the same thing."