Name Ben Kelly Role Interior designer | Structures The Hacienda | |
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Design dialogues 20 20 20 with ben kelly at london college of communication
Ben Kelly is a British interior designer, who owns interior design firm Ben Kelly Design. He has also won awards for graphic design.
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Biography
Kelly grew up in the village of Appletreewick in North Yorkshire. He graduated in Interior Design from the Royal College of Art in 1974.
He is cited by The Visual Dictionary of Interior Architecture and Design as a "hugely influential interior designer", and by Kingston University as "one of the UK's most influential interior designers". He is best known for his interior design of The Haçienda in Manchester, which he converted from a yacht showroom, retaining its red brick facade, inner columns and large iron doors. He did much other work for Factory Records, including their 1990 company office in Charles Street, Manchester.
He has collaborated extensively with graphic designer Peter Saville, with Saville basing much of his early work on Kelly's. Kelly and Saville won a Designers and Art Directors Award for the sleeve of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's self-titled first album.
In the 1970s, manager Malcolm McLaren asked Kelly to refurbish a basement rehearsal room for The Sex Pistols in Denmark Street, London, which McLaren had bought from Badfinger. Kelly also designed the colourful entrance to the underground Gymbox in London, and is a furniture designer. He is a research fellow of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture at Kingston University, and a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI).
