Aside from his brilliance as a designer, Ben Johnston’s real talent lies in his ability to offer a creative, sometimes alternative meaning to a word or phrase simply based on it’s presentation on a page, canvas, or wall. The way he bends and twists letters and words gives life and story to the forms far beyond the meaning of the words themselves. Raised in Cape Town, Johnston left South Africa after a short stint at university studying industrial design for a new life in Toronto Canada as an independent artist straddling the worlds of commercial design and fine art. These days Johnston focuses his energies on public work and murals as well as paintings and sculptures destined for galleries and private collectors. 

VantagePoint was lucky enough to share billing with Johnston at the Shine Mural Festival in St. Petersburg Florida where we sat down with him and and heard all about it straight from the man himself.