As a community, Norwich School recognises the talent that is widespread throughout pupils and staff alike. To celebrate this we have introduced a new blog segment, Who Knew, in which we find out about staff members hobbies, passions and talents.
Next up on this segment is Digital Marketing Officer, Benjamin Stokes, who tells us about his love of graphic design and the work that he has produced.
What started your love for art and design?
"Both of my parents went to art college and then worked in creative industries – my Dad in film and television and my mum in fashion and then theatre. So I have them to thank, firstly for demonstrating that doing something creative is a viable way to make a living, but more importantly for passing their appreciation for the arts on to me and my sister. I’m grateful to have grown up surrounded by their collection of books about various artists, art movements and art history and to have spent a lot of my childhood visiting many museums and art galleries in various places around the world. As a child, I could probably have shaved an hour or two off some of those gallery visits quite happily, but I certainly appreciate the influence they had."
What/who were your biggest inspirations?
"I pretty much learnt to read via a love of The Beano and Dandy comics, they also inspired an early love of graphic art and the communication possibilities of graphic design. Because of the crossover with comic books, some of the earliest art I can remember being interested in on my parents book shelves was pop-art – Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein in particular.
From an early age I’ve had a nerdy interest in maps, logos, flags, football club badges – all of them forms of graphic communication. I find the concept of expressing an idea or telling a story via design very interesting."
What’s your greatest creative achievement?
"Around 2016 I started working with a newly formed independent Norwich City fan group called Along Come Norwich. To begin with I was mainly providing graphics for the website and social media, however along with every other NCFC fan, we gradually got caught up in the wild ride of Daniel Farke’s time in charge and I started designing t-shirts, mugs, stickers and various other pieces of merchandise and increasingly became involved with the design of flags and banners for matchday displays. The highlight of this was designing an enormous surfer flag held up by fans in the Lower Barclay before the 3-0 win over Ipswich. This work brought me to the club’s attention and I was asked to collaborate with them in designing the matchday programme covers for the 2019/20 season and it was a real thrill to see the finished copies in the hands of fans.
The absolute highlight though was when ACN were asked earlier this year to come up with the design for a mural in the newly refurbished bar at Carrow Road, renamed as the Lion and Castle. I’ve been a fan of street art for years and we managed to get graffiti artist Dave “Gnasher” Nash on board to implement the design. I’ve admired Gnasher’s work for a long time and it was amazing to work with him and witness how he works as the mural went up this summer. It culminated with the grand opening in July with Stephen Fry cutting the ribbon and a hug for me from Delia Smith!
It’s been an adventure that I never saw coming and it all started with making new friends via Twitter which has led to some of my most fulfilling work."
How does your love of creative design factor into your professional career?
"I get lots of opportunities to do creative work in my role here in the Marketing Team. With all the extra-curricular activity available, Norwich School is basically a content generating machine. My previous job was in local media and there’s more news to cover here on a day-to-day basis!
Within the team we produce posters and flyers, programmes and orders of service, signage all the way from a simple A4 table number all the way up to outdoor banners hung on the school gates. I’ve designed pin badges, t-shirts, adverts for the side of double-decker buses – even Norwich School branded cappuccino stencils! Along with the design work, there is also a huge amount of photography every week, the running of the school’s main social media accounts and copy writing for social media, the school website and press releases.
I haven’t previously worked anywhere as busy or with as much variation of work as in my role here, every day is different and I’ve learnt a huge amount during my time at the school so far."
What would you like to do next?
"Being a Creative Director of some description has always appealed, involving as it does all the fun of the creative process without having to worry too much about the implementation! Perhaps more realistically, I’d like to just keep finding outlets for varied and interesting work and if there’s the chance for it to have a wide audience, then all the better. I would love to have a proper studio one day, so I can swan about, pretending to be Grayson Perry."
How often do you do design work? How does this work with your work schedule at the school?
"I do various bits and pieces in my spare time, some of it freelance work, but mostly just for my own amusement and as a way to relax. I’ve kept a sketchbook at hand ever since my time at art college. I’m not a prolific drawer, sometimes a sketchbook might contain five years-worth of work, but it’s nice get ideas down onto a page and to work things out. Freelance work can be a bit of a slog on a weekday evening, but people have got used to receiving work from me after 11pm. For anyone interested, I have a portfolio site which I intermittently update: benjaminstokesdesign.dudaone.com"
