citylikeyou — Stafford / Ben Anslow

Ben Anslow is a designer and illustrator working mainly with print, specifically in book design. Since graduating from Staffordshire University last year he has gained recognition from a variety of design publications, including Wallpaper*, Digital Arts and the London Design Festival. In 2011 Ben was awarded a D&AD Best New Blood and an ISTD membership for his typography. He is currently doing illustration work for Penguin Books.

http://benanslow.com

Designer Illustrator

Current city: Stafford

benanslow.com

Stafford / Museum

The Shire Hall Gallery is in the central area of Stafford town and is an exhibition space, library and cafe rolled into one. Recent exhibitions have included paper-cutting artist, Rob Ryan.

Stafford / Architecture

The village of Brocton is well known for having a number of timber-frame houses, but this house just stands out to me in particular. It was built in 1911 and is one of the most atmospheric and characterful houses you could possibly come across, in what is otherwise a quintessential English village.

Stafford / Place

Well known as being J.R.R. Tolkien’s inspiration for ‘Middle Earth’ in the Lord of the Rings books, Cannock Chase (colloquially ‘The Chase’) is somewhere that friends and I have frequented for many years. If you go to a part called Broc Hill at just the right time, you can literally just sit there and watch the sun disappear behind the horizon, and witness some stunning gradients in the sky. Also a great place for running and photography—you even get to see the odd few deer just bounding around. Cannock Chase is officially listed as one of England’s ‘Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ (AONB).

Stafford / Lake

In 1936 George Orwell described Rudyard Lake in one of his diary entries as ‘very depressing’. Today though, I can confirm that it really is a lovely place, with a fascinating display of lakeside cabins and boathouses—more reminiscent of something you’d see in New England than the Midlands. The most popular thing visitors do is set themselves the goal of walking full circle around the lake, which is about 4-5 miles and takes around 2 hours.

Oslo / Designer

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Barcelona / Art Director

PeBe is the artistic alias for Pablo Benito. Born in Barcelona in 1987, he studied graphic design at Elisava, school of design and engineering of his city. His personal design vision is very focused on colour, geometrics, typography and illustration. In 2014 he founded his own design studio, and since then he have been working with several national and international companies such as RedBull, LaCaixa, Repsol, ICUB and the Barcelona city council. In 2015 he launched his online shop, a place to share his big passion for illustration. In the last couple of years he realized several exhibitions around different cities in Spain. During two consecutive years, he also participated to the Barcelona Designers Collective as one of the new incoming artists. Some very important media as The Guardian, Die welt, Fact Magazine or El País also echoed his work in the last years.

New York / Designer

Francisco Lopez (born 1974 in Miami, Florida) is a Creative Director, Visual Artist and Filmmaker living in Brooklyn. He graduated from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2000. In 2004 Monica Brand and Francisco Lopez founded the multidisciplinary Creative studio “Mogollon” in New York City. Together they have created work for both art and commerce experimenting with virtually every media. Mogollon’s art films and work have been exhibited at PS1MoMA, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Diesel Art Gallery in Tokyo and The Drawing Center in New York.

Melbourne / Designer

I was born in 1989 in country NSW, Australia. Since graduating in 2010 with a Bachelor of Design, I live in Melbourne where I embark on self initiated projects - the most satisfying kind. Most of my exploration is within the fields of collage, illustration, animation and photography. Whilst in Melbourne I also work as a freelance designer to save dollars for overseas adventures. Coming home to Melbourne post-travel only reinforces my appreciation of this city.

Mannheim / Type Designer

Graphic Designer, based in Mannheim, Germany

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