ABOUT
Founded by UK designer and artist John Lancaster, ABCDEFGHUMAN design is shaped by a long relationship with technology and experimentation, and central to how each project becomes at some point, installation. Design flips between physical three-dimensional situations to what we see on-screen.
‘This discipline of paying more attention to what the tools are capable of when pushed past their intended use, can and often does reward design, even at its most abstract.’
1980's — Copyright House by architect Richard Seifert on Berners St, central London, and HQ to PRS (Performing Rights Society). Lancaster left college to work here in 1988 analysing BBC playlists and royalties.
1990's — New York (C. 1993) searching for rare Moog, Roland, and rare modular synthesizers — commissioned to export back to UK-based artists, producers, and studios. (C. 1995) signs as an electronic recording artist to SPV, Germany.
2000's — Lancaster and friend Matthew Hall are behind the rebirth of iconic ambient electronic label 'em:t' (2003), releasing 6 new albums with Gaudi and Gel-Sol. They go on to design a large 950m2 multimedia centre in Nottingham.
2010's — Experiments in concept tailoring and installation art. With Matt, launch 'by appointment' design studios in Kensington (2015), Bermondsey (2016), and Vauxhall (2017). Lancaster becomes a D&AD (British Design & Art Direction) creative, and member designer at BFC (British Fashion Council), exhibiting new art works in Belgravia and Sheffield.
2020's — Launches ACBDEFGHUMAN, a concept studio practising experimental design and installation art. Win's important brand contracts in AI tech brand ID, kinetic engineering, data intelligence, site design, and podcasts. Announces a new audio x architectural sensory app 'PERIMETERS' and the 'SURGERY'
Launches 'SUBS' — A modular clothing label, built as a system of 6 infinite parts. Each part continuously changes in appearance whilst its shape stays consistent, responding only to how the current human life cycle divides itself between place, climate and screen. An online shop opens twice a day to shop.
John Lancaster was born in Worksop, near Sheffield. He briefly studied English Literature (modern poets), before leaving mid-course to work as a data analyst assigned to BBC royalty distribution at the Performing Right Society, London. From there, he followed a career in electronic music. First at Carlsbro Music, then at The Synthesizer Company, sourcing and working with synthesizers, later signing as an electronic recording artist to the SPV label in Germany, with a guy from Nitzer Ebb.
On retiring as a performance musician, he was invited to run Square Centre Studios, Nottingham, shortly after acquiring ambient label em:t records. The work expanded from there into the design and installation of large creative spaces — photography, dance, experiential, and media facilities — and from there into spacial design and conceptual fashion. He was appointed a designer member of the British Fashion Council circa. 2017, following the launch of 3 studios in Kensington, Bermondsey, and Vauxhall. Covid cut short the labels underground popularity in 2020, as the pandemic closed in.
During lockdown he self-studied conceptual art, UI/UX in site design, and digital brand identities. ABCDEFGHUMAN was announced late 2020 as a multidisciplinary experimental design practice, drawing together the full range of a career spanning forty years across sound, space, art, fashion, design and publishing. Early published work includes SUBS Vol 1 + 2, Architecture Edition, new graffiti and paintings in concrete, and an A3 magazine titled ‘Electronic Edition’ with contributions from Mercury Prize winner Adrian Utley from the band Portishead, and Ivor Novello recipient Hanna Peel, and author, actor and podcaster Scroobius Pip. In 2025, the studio moved into eco-architecture, sonic apps, and biographical acoustics, and are currently planning a new gallery exhibition. In a return fashion, Lancaster recently launched minimalist clothing label [SUBS] with his wife and professional makeup artist Helen Lancaster.
Contact john@abcdefghuman.com
