Ben King is a Design Director based in New York City.
About
I’m an accomplished art director and designer with extensive experience in editorial design, branding, and interactive media. I built and led creative teams that produce visually compelling storytelling and immersive digital experiences. As Design Director at BuzzFeed News saw I spearheaded award-winning projects, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of stories, and oversaw a significant brand redesign. Ben’s expertise extends to art directing print and digital publications, working with renowned brands like Netflix, Travel+Leisure, Bon Appétit, Vanity Fair, Pentagram, and Conde Nast Traveler. A Carnegie Mellon graduate, I also taught as an adjunct professor at The School of Visual Arts.
Awards: Society of Publication Designers; Society of Illustrators, American Illustration
BuzzFeed News: FinCEN Files
The Challenge: Design a series of deeply reported stories on an incredibly arcane subject: money laundering. Our goal was to make visible the effects of money laundering to our readers — from drug trafficking, to terrorism. We created project branding, explainer videos, and a bespoke homepage for our stories, as well as those of our ICIJ partner newsrooms.
Reporting by: Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier, John Templon, Tom Warren, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Scott Pham, Richard Holmes, Azeen Ghorayshi, Michael Sallah, Tanya Kozyreva, and Emma Loop.
Art direction, illustration, front end development, and design. Photography by Alex Fradkin / Redux. Worked in close partnership with The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to approve and distribute the branding and key art for this series. This series was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
BuzzFeed News: Xinjiang Series
The challenge: Produce a series of stories on the development of detention facilities for ethnic Uighur populations in Xinjiang, China.
Reporting by: Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing, and Christo Buschek
Art direction, data viz, front end development, and design. This series was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting.
Tudum by Netflix
Netflix: Three Body Problem character guide
Netflix: Three Body Problem character guide
Netflix: Three Body Problem character guide
Netflix: Squid Game: The Challenge player tracker
Netflix: Squid Game: The Challenge player tracker
Netflix: Squid Game: The Challenge player tracker
BuzzFeedNews.com (the website)
In 2018, BuzzFeed News launched a stand-alone website for our journalism. Working closely with our product and engineering teams, in addition to the close support of newsroom leadership, we designed a new logo, brand language, and design systems. Logo typography by Tal Leming.
Standard layout
Standard layout
Featured story layout
Covid / Vaccine trackers
Election night
Election night, big story layout
Election night, with all the bells and whistles
Big story layout
Feature package
Feature package
Reporting tools / branding
Custom emoji
That time BuzzFeed
made a newspaper
On March 6, 2019, BuzzFeed News printed and distributed a one-time newspaper.
Featuring art by: Kelsey Dake; Guy Shield; Ben Kothe; Kate Bubacz; Alex Eben Meyer
Branding & Art Direction
Ironclad Distillery, Pentagram Design, The New York Times, The Ten Bells, nest+m
Ironclad Distillery logo
One-off bourbon label
Tshirt design for Ironclad Distillery
Prototype Ironclad Distillery label design
Lolita: The Story of a Cover Girl book design for F+W Press
Annual report for Queens College. Designed with Luke Hayman at Pentagram Design
The New York Times, Arts and Leisure weekend branding, website, and advertisements
The New York Times Arts and Leisure weekend, stage signage, visitor guidance, program design, and ticket design
The New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend Program design
Branding for The Ten Bells, a wine bar in Manhattan’s Lower East Side
Logo (and proposed logo extensions) for nest+m, a K–12 school in New York’s Lower East Side