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Ben Platten's Portfolio

I am a London-based Graphic/UI Designer. I’m a conceptual thinker and believe the best designs come out of deep research and a willingness to learn. Feel free to say “Hi” or grab a PDF copy of this portfolio.

WORK

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Francis Crick Inst. Hello Brain

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NHS: Direction

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Tate Modern: The Gaze

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Man Without A Van

Metamorphosis

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Jaunt

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College of Arms

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Barbican: Our Time on Earth

Mr. Coffee

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National Theatre: A Doll's House

Francis Crick Inst. Hello Brain

As part of a placement with Studio HB I worked on graphic assets for Hello Brain: a free exhibition running from March to December 2024 at the Francis Crick institute in London. 

 

Exhibition design is a real passion of mine, and it was rewarding and interesting to work on a live brief in the museum space. My contributions included type and layout, and liaising about print and  materials with the architectural design firm responsible for the physical pieces in the exhibition space.

 

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Bulldog and wolf
Braille
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Full Hello brain exhibition

Man Without A Van

A design lead role, and a great opportunity to develop a new brand with an existing freelance client. 

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A playful twist on the ‘man with a van’, we wanted to highlight the product’s differentiating feature - and settled on an inviting hand-drawn illustration style.
 

A hand holding a poster against a blue sky. The poster is advertising Man without a Van

Website

Hands with vitiligo typing on a laptop. On the screen is the website for man without a van. There is an illustration of a man with boxes
Vertical Banner on Building featuring an illustration of an interior designer telling two workers where to put a table. Text that says "You have a degree in interior design not lifting"

Marketing

iPhone X of instagram showing Man without a van posts including a post that says "friends all seem to be busy when you need to move?"
MWOAV flyer with an illustration of a man carrying a gargantuan flower for an old woman who is waving good-bye to a shop owner

Illustrations

illustrations used for Man without a Van all with a similar blue shade

Metamorphosis

Identity and campaign assets for an end-of-year showcase for Middlesex University’s faculty of arts and creative industries. 

 

Our team’s pitch referenced the transformation that students undertake as they develop creative skills, and I contributed halftone graphics and type motion design.

Lanyard on a grey background. Printed on the lanyard is the metamorphosis shapes and logotype in blue and cream.
stacks of coffee cups with the metamorphosis grad show in cream and blue and pink and olive
Metamorphosis poster in blue on cream
Magazine advert for the grad show it shows the evolution of the shape

NHS: A New Direction

I created and implemented a design concept for the Royal Free NHS Trust’s a new direction campaign, which can currently be seen across the 50 hospitals and medical practices in

North London.

 

The simplicity and calming palette of the design aims to provide contrast against the busy noticeboards found in waiting rooms. 

 

Meandering, looping paths “break the cycle” to direct the user to take action by scanning the QR code.

"Ben was a pleasure to work with and remained enthusiastic, professional and client-focused in all interactions."

Hannah Logan 
Public Health Consultant, MFPH

Printed materials

Designed New direction poster. Keep getting sidetracked by cheat day? we can help. There are resources and services that can help on your journey. Just ask. Take your health in a new direction. There is an arrow pointing to a qr code
Designed Banner for healthy living "take your health in a new direction" with an arrow leading to a qr code.
Poster from above placed on a notice board to show how it stands out.
New Direction design placed on a coffee cup.

For Screens

Initial visuals

Initial design routes

Jaunt

A bold and confident brand, designed to invoke movement and get students exploring the city they live in. 


My design and identity for Jaunt repurposes motifs from architecture as ‘portals for the city’, and the UI design is playful

and distinctive in contrast to the businesslike design of many

navigation apps.

6 designed posters for jaunt getting people excited about the app. It features the shapes inhearant in the branding
A series of designed buttons with combinations of the shapes and colours for Jaunt
four phones with the jaunt app an off white background and buttons with the colours taken from the brand guides
An explanation of the logo. The Logo is sheared 23 degrees to the right to indicate motion. This reflects the axial tilt of the earth.
The five shapes used for the eventual branding came from shapes that I had seen as I walked around London.
Bum bag with the brand shapes and logotype as well a button on a woman wearing a white denim jacket

College Of Arms

The College is an important institution in the history of the UK, and indeed in the history of graphic design - with the granting of arms arguably being the earliest form of personal branding!

 

An ideal subject, then, for my graduation-year project: To All and Singular (PDF, 20MB). I explore the links between heraldry and modern corporate and civic brand identity, and suggest ambitious changes to the College’s own visual identity and exhibition space as a means of raising the awareness of their work. 

 

This project was awarded First-Class honours in May 2023.

Poster for the College of arms. On the left are the names of the ordinaries and on the right is the explanation for the graphic design
tinctures/colours poster design
pose poster design
Tote bag with logo and blazon of logo on it
Tincture explanation poster design
attitude explanation poster design

Tate: The Gaze

A self-initiated project where I dived into the captivating style of Tate Modern marketing. Creating visuals based on the feminist idea of the female and male gaze in painting. 

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The purple and green in the visual is a call back to suffragette banners which reinforces the feminist theme present in the exhibit.

Hording for the TATE modern A look at the difference between the masucline and feminine gaze in art as well the painting Judeth beheading Holofernes
Lanyard with the Gaze on it in the colours of the exhibition branding
The Gaze posters showing how they interact with each other as a guy with a skateboard passes in front

Our Time on Earth

Using technology being developed today this exhibition envisions a positive future. I created visuals that reflected this by using the size of the poster’s size as a representation of the age of the earth. I scaled a rectangle down as a representation of Our Time on Earth.

 

This was a live project I did in cooperation with the Barbican.

Poster design for Our Time on Earth for the Barbican pink text on dark teal background as a ghostly arrow through the logotype to point out a tiny pink square
Arrow with a biodegradable tip that contains a seed that will sprout when planted in the garden
detail on the tote bag
Insert of the pink square and the text around it. It says "if the timeline of earth was the size of this poster this would be..." implying that the square represents our time on earth
Image of the exhibition identity on flags at the barbican
What will you do with your time on earth?
Instruction for the exhibition catalogue retrival method
Part two of the catalogue display instruction
The Catalogue resting on natural fabric

Mr. Coffee

A self-initiated project. I wanted to see how type could interact with a mascot character. The primary goal of this endeavour was to analyze how these two distinct elements could harmoniously combine to form a seamless and compelling branding experience.

Mr. Coffee advert showing the branding in front of young people in a park
MR.Coffee poster on a car. It says "your day can be bad but your coffee doesn't have to" it has mr. coffee falling
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Mr. Coffee design for the coffee cup
Mr. Coffee the character interacting with the logo in different poses

NT A Doll's House

A personal project for a production of A Doll's House at the National Theatre. A Doll's House follows a young housewife in Norway who discovers her independence and breaks free of the bonds of societal convention.  

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I've used an experimental almost futuristic aesthetic to match the prescient nature of the play. 

 

A doll's house poster for a tube billboard with the phrase "society or I"
Dolls house Poster for the National Theatre
Doll's house poster on a bus stop mid day

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