Interdisciplinary artist, Ben Skinner uses word play and visual art to bring colour to corporate.
Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist, Ben Skinner loves challenges and enjoys exploring different materials and mediums to find new ways to express how he sees the world. Dressed in bright clothing with citrus-coloured fingernails, Ben Skinner bends the rules and dares to be different.
You may recognize his work from the windows of Aritzia, the Vancouver-based design house known for its style-forward wardrobe essentials and cult favourites. As Aritzia’s Creative Director, Visual Display, Ben is the creative mind behind the fun and whimsical window dressings across Canada and in larger U.S. cities.
Or maybe you’ve noticed his work at Earl’s Restaurant in North Vancouver? His wall installation, ‘Sounds Delicious’ is composed of 277 cast plaster bricks with 30 onomatopoeia words that express sounds associated with eating, like ‘Gulp’ and ‘Chomp.’
Many NSCAD people likely remember Ben Skinner for the fun side project, ‘Ben’s Pen Exchange’, that he started alongside his undergraduate studies.
“I asked people to send a self-addressed envelope and a pen to me, and in exchange I would send back another pen of equal or lesser value,” he says.
That fun idea grew into a bigger project. Friends and fellow students would publicize the project when they travel to other cities, and pens started coming in from all over Canada, and beyond.
“I put up posters all over, put notices in the paper, printed stickers, t-shirts and postcards. I wanted to see how far I could get with that idea. It really took off!” says Ben. “Eventually I had to stop because I was overwhelmed by all the pens, but I kept all the letters, and I met some great people along the way.”
Ben’s Pen Exchange is just one of the imaginative and fun ways Ben Skinner reflects contemporary culture back on itself. He’s fascinated with word play and mastering different types of artistic media. Today, his work can be seen in waiting rooms, lobbies, restaurants, galleries, and of course, in the shop windows of Aritzia.
NSCAD’S “PLAYFUL” INFLUENCE
Ben’s interest in art started when he was very young.
“I got a lot of support from my parents and teachers,” he recalls. “My dad owned a print shop when I was young. I remember the equipment and the smell of ink. There were lots of weird-shaped pads of paper in all sorts of colours. Maybe that was an influence?”
After high school, Ben went on to do the foundation program at OCAD but chose to transfer to NSCAD University for his second year.
“NSCAD felt like home. I shared aesthetics and values with the students and faculty. I just felt aligned with them,” he says. “The people are playful and fun. They foster experimentation and weren’t just focused on the finished product.”
From photography to film to printmaking, Ben tried every course he could and made the most of his time at NSCAD.
“I had my hand in as many pots as I could,” he says. “I even took a watercolour class; it wasn’t at all what I expected. There were so many different things you could take for credits.”
After graduating from NSCAD with his BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts in 2000, Ben was keen to continue his education and not lose momentum.
“I wanted to go to grad school, and with help and references from Bruce Barber, I got into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,” he says. “It was harder than I thought to get a scholarship, but I took out student loans and went anyway. It was the hardest financial time I can remember. I was a small fish in a big pond. SAIC was massive; I was one of 200 MFA students that graduate every year.”
Ben’s MFA graduation project was to capture photos showing the views from 100 Dunkin’ Donuts outlets within a 10-mile radius of the school.
“It was very Baldessarian—conceptual with photos and humour. It involved a lot of collecting and list making. 100 locations within a 10-mile radius. The numbers lined up in a way that pleased me and I took the photos head on. I made it a point not to be artistic with the composition.”
Ben printed his own photos and kept them small. They were hung in a strip around the room in long light boxes, so they were back-lit. It was a black room, lit by continuous strips of neon.
“It seems ridiculous today, when you can buy LED strip lighting on Amazon! But back then, the school had a neon lab with a vinyl plotter, where they made the wall text for the exhibition.”
FROM PART-TIME GIGS TO CREATIVE DIRECTOR
After graduation, Ben worked part-time at the Museum of Contemporary Art, but it was difficult to get a full-time gig in the arts in such a competitive market.
He ended up applying for a full-time job as a display artist at Urban Outfitters. Every store has an artist who makes displays for the store. The regional merchandising manager who hired me said the only catch was that I had to be willing to move to Boulder Colorado in 10 days.
“When I started the job, it was baptism by fire,” says Ben with a laugh. “There was no time for training. We were in the middle of a holiday floor set where we had to paint and change every wall, install fixtures and do some light construction. We were building a 16-foot-long set.”
After about two years in Boulder, Ben was offered a job opening at one of the first flagship Urban Outfitters stores in West Edmonton Mall. He took the job as a step to get back to Canada and to get closer to Vancouver, where he wanted to settle long term.
Aritzia was next door to Urban Outfitters in the mall and one of the artists working on the Aritzia window display told her manager about Ben. The company was looking for someone to help the Senior Display Developer in Vancouver at that time, and flew Ben out for a meeting and a tour of the stores.
“They offered me the position of Display Developer. It was around the time they were opening dedicated stores for the TNA brand,” he says.
Ben did the creative for TNA and had the opportunity to help with the Aritzia stores. Then he worked on both. Over time, Ben grew into the Creative Director, Visual Display position and internalized the Aritzia brand personality.
“The Aritzia brand is known as a creator and purveyor of Everyday Luxury, and is about good design, quality materials and timeless style. I come up with the ideas based on what feels right aesthetically to align with that brand. There is always a sense of playfulness. The goal is to be fresh and new every season,” Ben explains.
“I take a lot of inspiration from nature and from my personal interests. I follow design blogs and involve illustrators, designers, and artists to create the right concept for the season. It’s always a bit edgy to make the display stand out from other stores in the market and grab the customer’s attention,” he adds.
Alongside his creative director role, Ben creates installations for corporate environments. When it comes to corporate commissions, he doesn’t just take orders from the client. He insists on creative control, and that’s where the magic happens.
“I mess around with familiar phrases to tease out the nuance,” says Ben, whose personal artwork is often text-based. “There are always more meanings than one. For example, ‘I’m down if you’re down’ can mean I’m good to go if you are. But it can also mean ‘I’m sad when you’re sad,’ which is a message of empathy.
“I often read the same thing over and over. It’s kind of a backwards way of making art. I often work in short series with a set of constraints I give myself, where the text is similar but changes slightly in each piece. I’ll get it out of my system and never come back to it again,” he adds.
BUILDING HIS ART BRICK BY BRICK
If you visit Ben’s studio, you’ll find hundreds of two-inch cubes stacked neatly in rows. He started by creating a set of wooden cubes, inspired by building blocks used to teach kids about different types of wood, and the project grew exponentially.
“For each block I recorded the name of the wood, they all had different densities, smells, colours. Once I created those, I thought, ‘Why limit this to wood? Why not make cubes out of all the solids?’”
Ben looked for any and every solid that he could make into a two-inch cube. Now it’s a constantly growing materials library and a life-long project.
“I love adding to it! The more I have, the harder it is to find something new and unique,” he says. “I’ve used caramelized white chocolate and Rice Crispy squares. I’ve used foamed ceramic. It looks like a sponge but it’s white and hard. I’m trying to get this new, innovative material called Aerogel, the lightest solid ever made. It’s very brittle, so it’s going to be difficult to cut that material into a two-inch cube, but I’m going to try.”
To learn more about Ben Skinner and his work, you can visit his website at www.benskinner.com