Through talking to users, digging into data, exploring shapes and words, Benjamin makes digital things for people to enjoy.

What influence does music have in your life as a creative?:

Im great believer in what James Victore says: “The things that made you weird as a kid make you great today”. Being a ‘creative’ isn’t about your ability to make marks on a page or use a computer. It’s about the story that you bring to your work. Your history, your passions, your loves, hates, interests and tastes.

Music has made up a huge part of who I am, and it has punctuated my life. Listening to Paul Simon’s Graceland in my Dad’s car on the way to my grandparents house for Sunday lunch. Staying home on a Sunday while my parents when to church so I could to record mix tapes from Yo MTV raps. Going to punk gigs in Brighton with friends from art college. Moving to Manchester and becoming exposed to dance music. The experiences (and soundtracks) of my life have shaped who I am today and the story that I bring to my work.

Like many others I work in an open plan office and it has two settings; noisy or silent. The default being the latter. As an extrovert I find the defining silence of our workplace hard to deal with at times. I use music to help break the uncomfortable silence and give my mind a distraction. My brain is then free to concentrate on the thinking at hand.

Tell us about your playlist:

My playlist is a random selection of the types of stuff that I listen to at work. There’s a few with a definite dance aesthetic and a few more ambient tracks in there. There’s a certain spacey continuity to the playlist. I enjoy music that feels drifty, with lots of interesting sounds and instruments you can get lost in. Getting lost is a big part of my creative process. And music helps me to wander off into the spaces where interesting things happen.

@bnjmnprry
http://www.bnjmnprry.net