BEN KIRCHNER – Biography
Ben lives in Bath, England. He graduated from Bath Spa University. Darrel was his external examiner at the University and offered Ben representation when he graduated in 1999.
Ben’s artworks are full of characters and detailed observations of expressions and body language. To Ben, arms and legs are equally as important as facial features, and are therefore given a lot of attention. His ambition is to create individual personalities on a page and he will become absorbed in the make belief of creating his images. He is equally adept at setting the scene with a cast of people as he is with creating anthropomorphic animals. Ben takes inspiration from the work of Golden Book illustrators such as Harry McNaught, Martin and Alice Provensen, John Parr Miller and other mid twentieth century illustrators. In addition to his caricatures both human and animal, Ben’s graphic sensibility, bold colour and keen observation has meant that he has also developed a style of portraiture that efficiently captures a likeness. He has created regular portrait commissions for the likes of GQ, The Chicago Tribune and The New Yorker. For The Washington Post he created a library of images for their US election coverage. Ben also works regularly with 8by8 and collaborated with them recently on an advertising campaign for Adidas at the Moscow World Cup. He recreated the ‘BT flatmates’ as the basis for animated TV ads, which required drawings from all angles and a library of gestures and poses for the animators to refer to. He also created a portrait of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the controversial captured American soldier, for the cover of Newsweek as well as Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn covers for The Economist.
Other advertising commissions have seen Ben work for Fortnum & Mason, Vodafone, The Co-Operative Bank, MasterCard, Silhouette Eyewear, Transport for London and a four year campaign for National Rail Card seeing Ben’s artworks appear in every railway station across the UK. Ben’s work has also been used for window displays, products and packaging for Ted Baker. He illustrated the book ‘Uncommon Practice’ for Interbrand and he has also worked for Adobe, producing a guidebook for a new version of Adobe Illustrator. In 2019 his first children’s book ‘Petite Comptines Rock’ will be published with Milan Publishing.
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8by8, Adidas, Adobe, Atlanta, BT, The Boston Globe, Bundesliga, The Chicago Tribune, The Co-operative Bank, Ebony, The Economist, The Financial Times, Fortnym & Mason, Fortune magazine, GQ, The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, Inc Magazine, LA Magazine, MasterCard, Milan Publishing, Myself Magazin, National Rail, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Newsweek, Nickelodeon, Opera News, Penguin Books, Silhouette Eyewear, Ted Baker, The Times, Transport for London, Vodafone, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Women’s Health