Gnorman’s Christmas Countdown

Join Gnorman in his magical forest for a festive, interactive advent calendar adventure. Find surprises and gifts every day of December leading up to Christmas Day! You’ll find games, activities and yuletide cheer all through the month.

Coming Soon

Support

For help with the app please email me at ben@lew.fm

Luna Books

Christmas Library on Etsy
Will You Be Our Flower Girl on Etsy
ABC Train on Etsy
Look How Far You’ve Come on Etsy

I provided creative and art direction for four original, customized picture books for Luna Books, a new personalized book brand. I helped to develop the concepts for the books, working with the writer to create engaging stories for the identified topics and genres. After the concepts were under way I searched for the perfect illustrators for each story. I worked closely with the illustrators to produce outstanding picture book art. Creating art for personalized books is a unique challenge, each spread must work for a variety of characters as well as dynamic length of text. I also contributed to cover design, provided design ideas, direction, and typography.

The Christmas Library

We needed an original, magical Christmas book and the idea of a Christmas library popped up immediately. Libraries are such a magical place and what could be more magical than a secret place full of Christmas books just for you! I created the story idea and worked with a ghost writer to produce a script. I worked with the incredible Tenalexa to bring this special world to life. He blew us away with his whimsical vision of the library. Buy Christmas Library on Etsy

Boothbay Serenade

Race for the Gifts

Race for the Gifts is a board featured in a print issue of Compassion Explorer Magazine. Check it out here.

Secret Kaiju

Secret Kaiju! is a personal project board game I am developing. The game finds the players cleaning up toxic waste that is spread across the city, racing against time before one of the players transforms into a giant monster and begins their destruction!

This project is an exercise in exploring every aspect of game design, from the concept and rules to the design of each element.

Surprising Result

Storybook Illustrator Brushes for Procreate

Compassion Explorer Magazine

In 2017 I led a redesign of Compassion International’s brand for kids, Compassion Explorer Magazine. We kicked off a new design for it’s quarterly print magazine and completely reimagined it’s online presence. Ongoing I have the privilege of working with a group of internal and external creatives to produce the quarterly magazine.

Begin the Beguine

Books and Music

Gnorman’s House at Sunset

Procreate Paint Box 2

Sample art for my pack of custom Procreate brushes for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.

Dancing Sloth

H+M

O Wondrous Day!

Merry Christmas! Wondrous day!
Maker of the universe,
You the end, & you the source
Come to share in human clay
And, yourself, to show the Way.

from “Most Amazing Word” by Madeleine L’Engle

Four Sigmatic

Jack-O-moji Sticker App

Carved pumpkin emojis! Get them on the app store! Click here

Alphonse

This “The Mysterious Tadpole” by Steven Kellogg tribute was done for a local gallery show featuring literary creatures!

A Wild Rumpus

This “Where the Wild Things Are” tribute piece was done for a local gallery show featuring literary creatures!

Immortal Peaches

Monkey King

The Monkey King And His Subjects on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit

Droid BFFs

Fun commission that is now available as a print at Society 6.

There Is No Try

A fun commission that is now available as a print at Society 6.

How To Play Ukulele

Al, of Ukulele Hunt commissioned these ebook covers for his series of amazing How to Play Ukulele books. Each book focuses on a specific genre or topic so it allowed for some fun designs all done within the retro Saul Bass vibe we created with the brand.

Paddington

A fun and quick little doodle of my fellow marmalade enthusiast: Paddington Bear.

Cheers, Mole!

A personal doodle to explore my own style for Wind in the Willows, one of my favorite books (especially illustrated editions!)

Amazing Annabelle

Illustrations for a little book with a big cause. Learn more at http://www.smallbutmightybooks.com

The Kickstarter project is live! Check it out!

Photo Bobo

A Pi’ikea St. app, Photo Bobo is a photo browser designed for babies. I designed the entire app including illustrating and animating Bobo the monkey. It was super fun! Check it out on the app store here.

Owl

Li’l TMNT

Money Up!

PCKLsoft reached out to me to design the logo for this fun and engaging app that teaches counting money. I created the logo and app icons as well as refining the UI look and feel and illustration fun character avatars. Check it out on the app store.

Bot Bot Helps

Bot Bot Helps is the very first book I ever wrote and illustrated! Check out more about it at botbotbooks.com or buy it on Amazon.

Celluloid Junkie

Rebrand and site revamp for Celluloid Junkie.

The Band

Self promotional piece! Fun stuff painted with my Procreate Paint Box.

Procreate Brushes

I currently have 8 unique brush packs and 1 to rule them all. There are great custom Procreate brushes for all manner of illustration, lettering, shading, and splattering. Check them all out on Creative Market ? Ben Lew’s Creative Market Shop

Gnorman’s House

Fun test painting using custom brushes for the Procreate app. Check my brushes here: Ben Lew’s Paint Box. Painted entirely on an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil.

Li’l Force Awakens

The Art Store

My second self-published book for Bot Bot Books! Buy it on Amazon here!

Pi’ikea St.

Ukulele Hunt

Uke Hunt is a bold and irreverent blog for the modern ukulele player so it called for a graphic new look that bucks the infuriating stereotypes of Tikis and Tiny Tim. The new look is bold, simple, and playful. The new logo reinforces the spirit of the blog and, as one reader pointed out, calls to mind the sight of the thousands of ukuleles held high and proud at the performance of Ode to Joy by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

When Al first contacted me he had several separate ukulele sites and he wanted to unify them under the umbrella of Ukulele Hunt. I designed and developed a custom WordPress site that worked to unify the sites as well as keeping each site’s distinct flavor.

I had a blast creating this series of covers for Ukulele Hunt’s impressive library of ebooks. If you want to learn to play ukulele, get on these.

About

My name is Ben and I’m a Designer and Illustrator living and working in Colorado Springs, CO. I’ve been freelance problem-solving for 8+ years and have designed everything from logos to apps to books.

I am Co-founder and sole designer at my company Pi’ikea St. where we’ve produced 6 apps for kids including the award-winning Interactive Alphabet.

I also have a passion for kid’s books and have produced two self-published books for my kids. I would love to illustrate more books!

Hobbies include ukulele, anything ninja turtles, drawing with my kids, re-arranging my office, eating my wife’s delicious food, and thinking about Hawaii.