ben eine

   Ben Eine

Ben Eine spray painting letters onto a wall

Ben Eine (ben Flynn) was born in London, England in 1970. Ben is mostly known for his lettering on the shutters of shops in places such as brick lane and Shoreditch. Ben is a street artist however does not believe his work to be “graffiti” as he believes that “graffiti makes the streets look ugly whereas street art beatifies it”.

Ben Eine started off his love for street art from the age of 14, tagging trains and street walls and being arrested for vandalism 14 times putting him under the category of “artistic fugitive” at a very young age. However ben stopped tagging when becoming a young adult as a few of his fellow graffiti friends were arrested and then sent to prison. Because of this he only displays his work on walls when he receives permission from the owner.

the screen print that Ben Eine sent to Barrack Obama

When Bens street art career kicked off he knew that all the strret artists work out there at the time was all too similar and therefour wanted to do something that would have been entirely different, he loved and specialised in lettering especially as there was such a wide variation of different shapes and words that the possibility was endless.

Ben eine rocketed to success when prime minister, David Cameron gave prime minister of the United States a screen print with letter which spelt out “twentyfirstcenturycity”

In my opinion Ben Eines work is very simple however it gives a very lively and colourful feel espesually on the dirty streets of London and provides the streets with joy. Bens work is very geometric and edgy with a wide range of colours, smooth texture and thick and bold mark making 

around most of the letters.

All of his work is done straight onto a wall or instillation, making the outlines and colouring in the inside of the shapes of the letters bold and bright buy using spray paints, which he heavily applies to create bold colours. All of his letters are very stylised in a very simple and effective way especially as his letters have no tone and are bold colours which are very great in size.  

I have chosen this artist as I am using ben eine as inspiration for both the lettering on my box and for the fashion project in which we will be designing a front cover for a fashion magazine.