My name is Benjamin K. Shown. I am a Seattle-based graphic designer currently attending the University of Washington pursuing a MFA in Visual Communication Design and freelancing after dark.
Everything about the world of graphic design, typography, and contemporary art facinates me. I am influenced by Flatstock artists, old school fontographers, web-futurtists, and DIY culture.
As a font-loving kid growing up in Indiana in the 80s, I would make birthday cards on my family’s old Macintosh 512, gleefully choosing a different typeface for each letter. This kind of leisure activity piqued my interest in letterforms, color and composition.
Upon graduating from Webster University in 2005 with a degree in interactive digital media, I landed a phenomenal internship at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art working with the very talented Arjen Noordeman.
After various design adventures in St. Louis, Amsterdam, DC, and Boston, I crossed the country headed for Seattle, where I am now a steadfast MFA student and a savvy freelancer after dark.
When I’m not tending to various design projects, I lend time to photography, globetrotting, guitar, chess, and politics. Some of my all-time favorite things include maps, train travel, Converse All-Stars, carrots, autumn, american football, coffee, my family, and my lovely girlfriend Kristen.
vital stats:
[since] 1982
[zodiac] leo
[blood type] a positive
[eye color] #63513D
[motherland] hoosier