Ben Brooks
Portfolio
I am an artist designer and maker. I appreciate the aesthetics of design, but my passion lies in materiality: what material best suits a given design problem? How should the nature of a material inform my design choices? I pride myself in knowing how to make the things that I design.
I graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in the spring of 2021 with a degree in furniture design. I have always been interested in the relationship between an object, its maker, and its user. In my thesis project, I explored this relationship in a very direct way. Although some of my work is sculptural and conceptual, I primarily design objects that are useful or invite interaction.
I grew up in Boulder, Colorado surrounded by current and future engineers. Fortunately, my father was constantly building things and gave me the curiosity and confidence to explore the world of making myself.
By the time I was in high school, I could forge my own knives and laminate my own custom skateboards, but it wasn't until I participated in a summer program at RISD that I realized that designing and making things could be a career.
I have been fortunate to study under a variety of artists and designers that make a living at their passion. I have learned from them that curiosity combined with focus and hard work can produce great things.
Education
2019
Vermont Woodworking School
2021
BFA, Furniture Design, Rhode Island School of Design