Ben Kelly – Bold Strokes

Having created The Hacienda's striking stripes, designed legendary record sleeves and rescued the colour orange from style oblivion, the influential British designer Ben Kelly continues to make his mark with sculptural installations and graphic interiors

- By Liam Hess

Regaled with Ben Kelly's tales from the heady heights and very late nights of the 1980s Manchester rave scene, it's easy to feel transported right back to the heyday of his best-known creation, the city's legendary Hacienda nightclub. There was this very anarchic approach to everything,' he says. 'We all just wanted to break the rules.

Transported only briefly, though, as Kelly, now 73, is talking animatedly over a cup of tea in his studio, which sits in the backyard of his coastguard's cottage on the East Sussex coast. It is lined with shelves that creak with stacks of design and art books; through the window, a John Constable-worthy powder blue sky hangs above rolling hills dotted with cows and sheep, grazing just beyond Kelly's own vegetable patch. While Kelly still lives mostly in south London, he bought his Sussex sanctuary 15 years ago. Originally built in 1900 to clamp down on rampant smuggling in the area, the house was most recently owned by the photographer Fay Godwin. Since then, it's become a place to rekindle his creative energy during quieter periods between projects and teaching. 'I spend as much time here as possible, and I use an old-school drawing board,' he says.