About Ben
I grew up in Manchester, and the highlight of my week was a trip to Blockbuster with my dad to rent a PlayStation game. After nailing my 11-plus I went to Stretford Grammar, and my favourite subjects were music, art, and IT. Later I misspent my youth in alternative nightclubs, playing in bands, and having stupid hair. To be fair, I still do some of this now.
How I got into design
When I left school I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I took biology, physics, chemistry, and maths at college to keep my options open. That did NOT go well. After two weeks I knew I’d made a huge mistake.
I’d loved playing with PCs since I was little, so I worked in an electronics shop, then a computer shop, then IT support. That job put me next to the marketing and design team, and I realised there were ways to be creative I didn’t know existed. I wanted to be a web designer.
So I studied design at night school while I worked, and when a design role opened up at the same company, I moved sideways into it.
From web design to product
Next I joined Party Delights as a web designer. I became web design manager, and when the team outgrew that I set up a UX team, hired two designers, and we looked after front-end development too. That’s where I learned most of my craft, from front-end code to user interviews, measurement, and A/B testing.
Then I moved into tech. I went to CarFinance 247, then joined a Manchester startup as its founding designer (it folded, as startups do), then thinkmoney, where we met some fantastic designers. After that I went contracting.
Part way through, I took time out to run my own branding studio. We worked with ParalympicsGB and some charities, and it was some of the most fulfilling work I’ve done. But finding the work, doing the client work, and managing subcontractors all at once wasn’t for me. I was stressed all the time and made no more money than I did contracting, so I went back to doing the design work. I’ve worked across ecommerce, fintech, edtech, and AI since.
Why I build plugins
Contracting made me want to work faster. I was already quick, and I’d written Photoshop batch scripts before, so I started bringing JavaScript into my design work. I used plugins all day, but I kept looking for ones that didn’t exist and thinking “if I had the time, I could build that”.
In 2023 I finally did. I was redesigning web pages, and every round of feedback from senior stakeholders was about the copy. The copy wasn’t being redesigned and wasn’t mine to change. So I built Text to Lorem Ipsum, which turns real text into lorem ipsum and keeps its formatting. Nobody could read the copy anymore, so the feedback went back to the layout.
After the first one it was a bit like a drug. Perception came next, then Video and Shadows. They’re all part of Design System Tools and share one account, so signing in to one signs you in to all of them. They’re for the boring jobs I kept doing over and over on projects, and if nobody else ever finds a use for them, I still do.
How I like to work
I do my best work in a squad that owns its decisions and its numbers: one or two engineers, a product manager, maybe a data analyst, and me as an individual contributor. I also like working across several squads at once, especially when there are other designers to support, because I can help them get to the best answer without doing all the heavy lifting myself. I’ve worked both ways in four or five organisations, and it’s worked well every time.
Outside work
I still go to gigs and festivals, mostly Download and Slam Dunk, and Leeds when the line-up’s good enough. I’d rather play a long, story-driven PS5 game than watch TV, and I’m a big fan of a luxury holiday. The dog makes sure I get out for a walk.
If you want to know what I’m like to work with, the people I’ve worked with say it better on the testimonials page.