Elevating an online store user experience. Quick path to checkout, AR and customization, high quality presentation. Use of video and animation increases buy rate by 65-85% (study). Designed with Figma, Principle and Cinema 4D. I learned how to bring UX work into 3d and how to use a render farm to package design concepts for presentation.
Lightning Poker
UI/UX Design & branding for a bitcoin poker app. Built with Figma and XD.
Online Store Concept
Designed in Figma. Men’s focused e-commerce fashion market site.
Prototyping with XD
A user flow through a selection of content. Built in Adobe XD.
Recommended UI/UX Resources
The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the way we live with technology. This book starts with a look at how UI/UX design flaws led to the Chernobyl disaster. A wall of dials in the safety operations centre buried the story that needed to be understood. A friend almost left engineering until she discovered this book. It gave her a human purpose for all of her learning. She is at MIT now after having led a team of 70 developers (if I recall correctly) at the Teacher’s Pension Fund.
UserOnboarding TeardownsMost new users stop engaging early on if they are confused or bored. This website examines how famous digital products approached these problems by critiquing each screen in the onboarding process.
Jobs To Be Done A first-principles design framework ideal for digital products and services. (Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School, Professor.) (Thanks: David Gillis, Teehan+Lax Partner, Facebook Design)
On Management: Culture Your decisions affect others. Trust is fundamental for group cohesion. Fascinating insights from the liberation of Haiti and it’s hero Toussaint—who led the only successful slave uprising in history (Ben Horowitz, founder of Andreessen Horowitz)
Paintings
Aphasia is a neurological condition that blocks understanding of written and verbal language. These paintings suggest fragmentary elements beginning to form into a new visual language. A loosely ordered collection of floating debris and texture suggesting potential for hope.
Time lapse video of illustrator Ben Weeks and his assistant Ian Turner creating a chalk mural in the lobby of Juniper Park, a Toronto based advertising agency later acquired by TBWA. This artwork was also featured on Coldplay's blog and awarded by the Creative Review Illustration Annual in the UK. The mural aims to inspire visiting clients to be open minded about new and challenging ideas they'd be presented with at in-person meetings they flew in from the US to attend.
Juniper Park Mural Detail
“Be Part of The Team”
Juniper Park Mural
This mural was created for the reception area of an advertising agency to help inspire their staff and visiting clients. Creative Director: Barry Quinn, Terry Drummond, Alan Madill. ACD: Christine Gliha. Producer: Ryan Teixeira. Assistant to Ben Weeks: Ian Turner. Featured in Creative Review and Communication Arts.
Selected for Creative Review’s Illustration Annual
Initial Sketch
Integrating client provided copy to show placement and scale
D&AD Award Winner - PEN Exiles
A continuous line drawing spans this 80 page annual report book. Designed by Jim Ryce at Soapbox. Portrait Photographs: Gary Mulcahey. Book Photographs: Chris Thomaidis. Lettering and illustrations: Ben Weeks. Client: PEN Canada. Awarded: D&AD Wood Pencil
Ecobee T-Shirt
Ecobee makes smart wi-fi thermostats with remote sensors. To show gratitude to their team they commissioned an illustration of this quote by Jimmy Johnson, "The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little bit extra."
Ryerson University
Client: Ryerson University Yates School of Graduate Studies Design Agency: Studio Wyse Project: Year-In-Review Document Art Director: Nicola Hamilton, Vanessa Wyse
Maps
Early Work
Work I did early on in my career around 2002-2004 which often won professional awards from industry juries at American Illustration, Coupe and Applied Arts while I was still a student. One exhibition my work was selected for was curated by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art curator David Liss and another in the UK was curated by people from Tate Liverpool, White Cube Gallery London and elsewhere.
Rocketman
I was also an art student sometime in 2002-03 when I did this one. It was based on some sketches I'd done for fun in my sketchbook that our awesome teacher (Paul Dallas) encouraged me to explore further. The brief had been to make something for inflight purchases for Virgin Airlines if I recall. For a sophisticated audience. I imagined a kind of very cool king who could fly with the power of his own beard.
Gemini
The twins are in the womb, dreaming of something to come in another world. I was a second year illustration student when this work was published into American Illustration, beating hundreds—even thousands of submissions from professionals. The annual book recognizes the strongest images of the year. One of the judges was an animator for Saturday Night Live.
Soviet Space Race
This work was also done for fun on my own when I was an art student. I always had wanted to be an astronaut. Being an artist was a pragmatic compromise. Anyway the intensity, innovation and desire for discovery I love. We often in the west overlook the contributions and achievements Russia made. They have an aesthetic that's less familiar than the images we're more familiar with. So that was a fun collection of iconography to explore.
Life Drawing
This was when I stopped drawing in the classical style and found the confidence to play and discover my own voice. I did a series of works I can post if you're interested. I love the decisions in this drawing and the others. Some of the best I've ever done. Though commercially, people don't often ask for this look. It would be amazing to draw a celebrity portrait from life sometime.
Ink on the Carpet
This was made in 2004 if I recall. It was a finalist in the Pizza Express Prospects show and exhibited in the Tea Building in London England—the same building where Tomato's offices were.
Survivor Guilt
The mint chocolate chip ice-cream floats by his fallen comrades in the frozen section of the super market.
Rooted, Established, Loved
Good things to be. Graphic shapes, fragile lines and bold type commissioned by Calvary Church to inspire others in reference to Ephesians 3:17-19
Holiday Essentials Poster
Designed by Philp Yan, Genesys.
Humour Me Fundraiser
Maureen Saiba, Chairman of the Board, Canadian Tire Corporation
Victor Dodig, President and CEO of CIBC
Donald Guloien, President and CEO of Manulife
David Goodman, Founder Humour Me, Chairman and CEO Dundee Corporation
Cumbrae's Mural
Meat Map
Ontario farm locations who supply meat to this butcher shop are shown to enhancing the visual richness of the in-store experience. Art Direction by Q30. Cumbrae’s Visual Identity by Blok Design. Architecture by Giannone Petricone Associates.
Detail. Niagara Falls.
Sketch
DesignThinker of the Year - Award Winner 2015
I love it when my clients win awards.
Photo by RGD: Glenda Rissman from Q30 presenting the Design Thinker of the Year Award to the founder of Cumbrae's at the RGD Design Thinker's Conference.
The Canadianist — Sold Out
Canadian Colloquialisms
COLLOQUIALISMS BY BEN WEEKS / 8" X 10" LETTERPRESS PRINT
HOLY MACKINAW! Ben Weeks gives 'er with a caboodle of Canadian colloquialisms — in his signature spontaneous, sprawling and exuberant style.
Each print is certified with a foil seal and letterpressed mini certificate — and packaged with a sturdy chipboard backing in a protective, crystal clear cello bag.
The Canadianist series prints are designed to perfectly fit Ikea RIBBA 30 x 40 cm frames (frame not included).
Print 5 of 5 Name: Colloquialisms Illustrator: Ben Weeks Colours: Red 032, Black, Silver Foil Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches
[SOLD OUT]
Canadian Colloquialisms
$20 each or all five as a set for $80. [SOLD OUT]
With, Katy Dockrill, Tom Froese, Jeannie Phan, Andrew Kolb
Series with, Jeannie Phan, Katy Dockrill, Tom Froese
Series Packaging
Pricing was: $20 each or all five as a set for $80 [SOLD OUT]
I'm pleased to have been invited to contribute to this beautifully printed series along with fellow Canadian illustrators. These are phrases which I associate with life in Canada. Encouragements, metaphors from from tough game of ice hockey and sense of wonder about our vast natural wilderness.
![$20 each or all five as a set for $80. [SOLD OUT] With, Katy Dockrill, Tom Froese, Jeannie Phan, Andrew Kolb http://www.greetingsfrom.ca/shop](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/549df980e4b0bef254efbadc/1442866734566-92GEWAGK6JJE4LE1LNO4/Frames_on_Wall3b.jpg)
![Pricing was: $20 each or all five as a set for $80 [SOLD OUT]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/549df980e4b0bef254efbadc/1442866734781-LH81DFYZGBYTESKJU2VT/Scatter1.jpg)
