Sally Linsdell's digital gems

Text: Meg Sharp

I discovered Sally when I saw her work for Bambooman’s Sound Healers Vol 1 compilation and, after delving further, found a treasure trove of beautifully compiled, sophisticated geometric artwork and clean-cut grainy futurism. Below she tells us about the creation of her blog Inhabit, a video she shot for Outlook this year released this month and her appreciation of graphics for music as an artform.

Where do you live?
At the minute I’m currently residing in Leeds, but I’m originally from Newcastle.

What did you study?
I’m actually still studying, I’m in my 3rd year of BA (Hons) Graphic Arts at Leeds Metropolitan Uni.

Can you explain your creative process?
My work is heavily digital collage, I love the freedom to create worlds only you could otherwise only imagine. I love working with grains & shadows, there’s something so raw and aesthetically pleasing about them to me that I just can’t quite explain.

What influences your work?
Obviously music plays a heavy roll. Like many, my first conscious contact with graphic design was via record and CD covers. I remember my Dad owning a vast collection of records when I was a child, I would spent hours leafing through the vinyls and countless more staring at the details on the actual album covers. His passion for music translated over to me from a young age and my passion for graphics for music has developed ever since.

How did you get involved with Inhabit?
Inhabit was started by myself and my boyfriend just over a year ago simply because we recognised that there was so much creative talent and such buzz coming out of Leeds, but no platform to share it. At first it started simply as a Tumblr page, we’d post photos from night clubs, interviews with DJ’s, reviews and started our ongoing mix series from local DJ’s. As the interest to Inhabit grew, so did our team, the website, and the content and there is now around 8 of us working on it. I overlook all submitted content and focus more on the creative and visual side of the blog these days so I can be doing anything from designing a banner, to organising, filming & editing an event or simply writing an article. Here’s a video from a recent party with a London based clothing label Can Survive which I organised, filmed, & edited.

Anything exciting coming up for you in the future?
Inhabit wise, we were kindly invited to Outlook Festival this summer to film and document the festival, our video for that will be released in January, Im looking forward to that. We also have a few interviews lined up and plans for our first birthday underway but I don’t want to give too much away. Outside of that I’ve got my final 4 months of university coming up, and then after that it’s into the big wide world. I’d love to move to London and continue pushing my design work there.

What music are you listening to at the moment?
I love what Warp Records have been releasing this year such as Rustie and Hudson Mohawke. It’s nice to see Hip Hop making something of a renaissance this year too, with artists such as Drake, Curren$y, A$AP Rocky & Clams Casino.

Sally’s website