Artist profile

JuniorTomlin

@juniortomlin

Junior Tomlin was born and raised in Ladbroke Grove, west London. He excelled in art from an early age, copying comic books with precision and flair, and creating accurate copies for school friends. Renowned for his stunning images, Junior’s visionary work combines influences from sci-fi, surrealism, fantasy, futurism and comics, resulting in a collection of artwork that defined an era and earned him the title ‘The Salvador Dali of Rave’. Starting out in the video games industry, after he left Goldsmith’s University with a diploma (LDAD) in Graphic Design, Junior went on to work at a couple of infamous record labels - Vinyl Solution and Kickin’ Records. In 1989 he designed his first record cover ‘Space Gladiator’ for Renegade Soundwave. Later, while working at Kickin’, Junior met a promoter named Scott who was organising his first ever event, called RaveWorld. With a limited budget he could only afford to print a flyer with three colours; black, white and blue. Junior’s first flyer design - three surreal heads floating in space - materialised out of this limited palette and remains one of his favourites. This was the genesis of a crucial stage in his artistic career. That first commission was the gateway to more work within the rave community and he eventually worked with some of the most seminal promoters from 1992 onwards including Telepathy, Dreamscape, Slammin’ Vinyl, One Nation, Dream Odyssey and Ravealation. At Kickin’ Junior also designed many record covers, the first of which coincided with the release of ‘Women Respond To Bass’ by Renegade Soundwave, who were signed to Mute Records in the same year. From that point onwards Junior’s work became synonymous with flyers and record covers, hired by record labels such as Kickin’ Records, React, ZTT and Mute who all utilised his exceptional imagination to give their releases unique visual appeal. Throughout the nineties Junior’s work continued to command the attention of thousands of ravers,