'Keith Richards was talking to me about fonts'

Jimmy Turrell at work at The Biscuit Tin Studios in Newcastle

From album art to beer cans, fashion and music festivals - Jimmy Turrell has done it all.

The graphic designer and artist from the Byker area of Newcastle is responsible for some of the biggest album covers in the music industry, including those from Kasabian, Aretha Franklin and The Rolling Stones.

His latest project is working with rock legends AC/DC, to mark their 50th anniversary.

"I made a rule for myself with music," Jimmy says. "I won't ever do a project if I don't like the music. When I got the AC/DC project I was naïve as to just how many banging tunes they'd done over the years."

He is redesigning nine of the band's albums to mark the milestone, including The Razors Edge, Highway to Hell and Back in Black.

The band are said to be "digging" his work on the project so far.

Redesigned images as part of AC/DC's 50th anniversary project

Life can get surreal at times, Jimmy tells BBC Radio Newcastle.

"I have had messages come in from Brian Johnson or when I was working for The Rolling Stones, and I was like eh, that's Keith Richards talking to me about fonts!"

Jimmy's art is based around hand collage.

"I come up with my best ideas when I'm handling things" he explains.

One of the main pieces of machinery he uses to create his art is a Risograph printer, which is known for producing vivid colours and specific textures.

They were built for schools and libraries in the 1960s and 1970s. But in the last 20 years, they have become popular in the graphic design and illustration industry.

"They're good for fluorescent colours" Jimmy explains. "They're punchy machines and if something breaks or goes wrong that's almost part of the process. They're happy accidents."

Jimmy uses a Risograph printer to produce his work

Jimmy's love of art and creating things came from a young age.

As a young boy his Dad, who was a carpet fitter, would bring home large rolls of cardboard and Jimmy would sit in the middle of them and draw for hours.

"I would create these narrative structures, just starting off with a stick guy, they would fill the page," he says.

"Then as I got older it would be about movies I'd watched like Star Wars or Indiana Jones."

'I fell so many times'

But success didn't come easy.

Fresh out of university, Jimmy says he struggled to find a job and went to work at Hunter's on the Team Valley trading estate in Gateshead, splitting up dough in the bakery.

Then one day the call came to move to London and work as an illustrator for Mix Mag, an electronic dance and clubbing magazine.

That kick-started his career, and within six weeks The Prodigy called and he was working on the cover to their single, Baby's Got A Temper.

Jimmy went on to spend the next 20 years in London before returning home to the North East with his wife and basing himself at The Biscuit Tin Studios in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle.

Having just completed a project with rock band Kasabian, Jimmy is also working with Penguin Books on a re-release of George Orwell's book, 1984.

And when it comes to the all-time dream project, Jimmy says he would love to work with Stevie Wonder or the German electronic band, Kraftwerk.