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Ben Forster

@benforstercreative

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Branding | Strategy | Typography | Web Design
Designing Epic Brands Whilst Building Our Own.
Auckland, New Zealand
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Starting is the hardest part, but sometimes the harder part is knowing you should have started sooner.

Little Queen Street in Auckland has some of the most beautiful early 20th century architectural typography in the city. Hand-carved, hand-painted letterforms on building facades that most people walk past without a second look.

Buildings get demolished. Facades get covered over. And when that happens, there’s no record of the craftsmanship that was there.

I created a series of type specimen publications that document and preserve each letterform from these buildings. Every character measured and laid out so the typefaces exist somewhere, even after the facades don’t.

This project won Silver at the DINZ Best Awards 2025, and I still don’t fully know how to sit with that. But the award wasn’t the reason I made it. I made it because someone had to, and I figured I’d be the one to commit to the direction and see where it went.

More of the work and the process behind it coming soon. by @benforstercreative

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These are the 7 things I will always check before sending a design to the printer.

1. Bleed and safe zones.
Anything touching the edge needs bleed. Anything important stays inside the safe zone. Miss this and stuff gets cut off.

2. Colour mode.
Print needs CMYK, not RGB. Colours can shift once they hit paper if you don’t convert first.

3. Images and resolution.
Low res photos are the fastest way to ruin a print job. Shadows, gradients and transparency all need a second look too, they don’t always print the way they look on screen.

4. Fonts.
Outline them or embed them. Otherwise the print shop opens your file and your typography’s changed on you.

5. Thin lines.
Fine strokes and small details can vanish in print. Worth zooming in before you export.

6. Special finishing.
Foil, varnish, cutting, folding, white ink, whatever it is, it needs its own layer and a proper name.

7. Print details.
Final size, material, sides, quantity, deadline. Get it all locked in before the file goes anywhere.

Prepress is what actually makes a design ready to print. by @benforstercreative

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Three of three typefaces I documented from Little Queen Street in Auckland. Each one carved into a building facade, each one telling a different story about the era it came from.

I created a type specimen breakdown to preserve what’s there before it isn’t. Buildings change hands, facades get covered or demolished, and when that happens the craftsmanship disappears with them.

This is the third in a series of three, one for each typeface from the project. Dodgebrother and Wingate are next.

The history of Wingate -

Established in the late 19th century, Wingate & Co.
quickly becoming a prominent hardware supplier in
Auckland. The company began by providing essential
tools and materials for the burgeoning construction
industry. By the early 1900s, Wingate & Co. expanded
its operations to include a variety of hardware goods,
catering to both commercial and residential markets.
The business established its premises within Auckland
with a store on Little Queens Street, serving as a vital
hub for builders and tradespeople in the area. Wingate’s commitment to quality and customer service earned it a reputable standing in the community, contributing significantly to the development of Auckland’s infrastructure throughout the 20th century. by @benforstercreative

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N0.7 Sanford.

One of three typefaces I documented from Little Queen Street in Auckland. Each one carved into a building facade, each one telling a different story about the era it came from.

Sanford stood out to me because of how deliberate the letterforms feel. There’s a weight and structure to it that tells you someone put real thought into how this building would be read from the street. That kind of intention doesn’t happen by accident.

I created a type specimen breakdown to preserve what’s there before it isn’t. Buildings change hands, facades get covered or demolished, and when that happens the craftsmanship disappears with them.

This is the first in a series of three, one for each typeface from the project. Dodgebrother and Wingate are next.

The history of Sanford -

Sanford Limited, New Zealand’s oldest seafood company, was founded by Albert Sanford in the late 19th century after his arrival in Auckland. Starting out fishing for snapper in the Hauraki Gulf, Sanford soon
opened his first fish market on the corner of Albert and Customs Streets. The family business, Sanford & Sons, officially took form in 1904, rapidly expanding its fleet of boats, trucks, and shops. By the 1920s, Sanford operated twenty fish shops, two restaurants, and a fish curing plant. Notably, one of these restaurants, “Sanford’s Dining Room,” was located on Little Queens Street. by @benforstercreative

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Who else feels like they are wearing 101 different hats as a designer? by @benforstercreative

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Stop manually resizing text highlights 👀

For so long, I used to manually resize rectangles behind my text to create highlight effects, causing endless pain with sizing, moving, and selecting each individual layer.

Using Illustrator’s Appearance panel, you can create an editable highlight that automatically adjusts when your text changes.

No outlining.
No separate rectangles.
No resizing the highlight every time you edit the copy.

Just one live, flexible text effect that stays completely editable.

Save this for your next Illustrator project

#adobeıllustrator #illustratortips #designtips #graphicdesign by @benforstercreative

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Trust the process!

Every mark starts the same way, a pen, some paper, and a blank page full of possibility. The screen just finishes what the sketchbook started. by @benforstercreative

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AI is a bit like McDonald’s.

Hear me out.

McDonald’s is massive, it’s everywhere, and it probably scared a lot of restaurants when it came along. But it didn’t kill fine dining. It serves a completely different audience.

AI is the same. It’s big, it’s growing, and yes, it’s changing the design industry. But the clients who want thoughtful, strategic, human-led creative work aren’t disappearing. They’re just not the McDonald’s customer.

Recognising that difference matters, whether you’re a designer figuring out where you fit, or a business figuring out what you actually need.

This one came from a recent podcast @cosmicsanspod with @cj.cawley.design and it stuck with me enough that I had to share it.

Credit where credit is due. by @benforstercreative

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