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Ben Terrett

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Ben Terrett
RDI
Terrett in 2018
Personal details
Born
Ben Terrett

1975 (age 48–49)
NationalityBritish
OccupationDesigner
AwardsRoyal Designer for Industry
Design Week Hall of Fame
Design Museum's Design of the Year
D&AD "Black Pencil"
Honorary Doctorate in Design from Central Saint Martins
Websitebenterrett.com

Ben Terrett RDI (born 1975) is a British designer. He was the first Royal Designer for Industry elected for Service Design and has won the Design Museum's Design of the Year, a D&AD "Black Pencil" and is in the Design Week Hall of Fame. Terrett specialises in large digital projects and is most well known for his work designing the GOV.UK website.

Terrett co-authored the UK Government Design Principles[1] which Tim O'Reilly called "the most significant since Apple's".[2][3] Terrett has said "Every designer should work in the public sector."[4] As of February 2019 he is the CEO of Public Digital and a Deputy Chair at University of the Arts London[5]

Early life

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Terrett was born in 1975. He studied Graphic Design and Illustration at De Montfort University. In 1997 he won the Royal Society of Arts Student Design Awards prize for Interactive Graphics.[6]

Career

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Early career

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In 2001 he set up The Design Conspiracy, a graphic design agency. The agency created the website What Brand Are You? which gained notoriety when the spoof names were registered for real.[7] In 2008 he co-founded Newspaper Club with Russell Davies and Tom Taylor.[8] From 2008 to 2011 Terrett worked at the London office of Wieden+Kennedy as the Design Director and the Creative Director on the Guardian and Nike Grid accounts.

Government Digital Service

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From 2011 to 2015 Terrett was Director of Design in the Government Digital Service in the Cabinet Office.[9] He led a team of multi-disciplinary designers who designed GOV.UK. In 2013 GOV.UK was the first digital project to win the Design Museum's Design of the Year award.[10][11] GOV.UK also won a D&AD "Black Pencil" award.[12][13] The Government Digital Service has been used as case study at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.[14]

On leaving the Government Digital Service, Terrett said "Every designer should work in the public sector". "In an industry so often obsessed with novelty and persuasion, government is a chance to do real design work. If the government started a fast stream programme for design grads it would start to change the industry and make services better at the same time".[15]

Terrett has co-authored a book about his time in government: Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery.[16]

Co-operative Group and beyond

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In 2015 he left GDS[17] and joined the Co-operative Group as Group Design Director,[18] shortly before the launch of the company's re-brand by design agency North.[19] In 2018 he left to set up a consultancy company, Public Digital,[20] where he is CEO.

His work has been exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.[21]

Other roles

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Terrett is Deputy Chair at University of the Arts London,[22] a Trustee [23] of D&AD, a member of the High Speed 2 Design Panel[24][25] and an advisor to the London Design Festival.

In 2020 as Deputy President of D&AD he was due to become the organisation's President. He declined the Presidency citing the lack of diversity in similar industry roles[26] saying "I look around at the world and I see too many people who look like me, middle-aged white men, in positions like this, so I've decided to stand aside and make space for others." Naresh Ramchandani from Pentagram became President instead.[27] Terrett remains a Trustee.

Honours and awards

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Terrett receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Central Saint Martins 2024

Winner, Graphics Category Design Museum Design of the Year for Newspaper Club, 2010[28]

Winner Overall, Design Museum Design of the Year for GOV.UK, 2013[29][30][31]

Winner, D&AD Black Pencil for GOV.UK, 2013[32][33]

Design Week Hall of Fame, 2017[34]

Royal Designer for Industry for Service Design, 2018[35][36][37]

He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Design from Central Saint Martins in 2024.[38]

Bibliography

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Books

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  • Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery (2018) ISBN 9781907994784 (London Publishing Partnership, May 2018)
  • Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery (Revised second edition 2021) ISBN 9781913019396 (London Publishing Partnership, September 2021)
  • PUBLIC DIGITAL – 巨大な官僚制組織をシンプルで機敏なデジタル組織に変えるには (Japanese edition 2022) ASIN B0B748TKDW (英治出版, August 3, 2022)

Notable lectures

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6 September 2009 Terrett spoke at Kyoorius Designyatra in Mumbai, India.[39][40]

12 March 2012 at SXSW in Austin Texas, Terrett spoke on a panel which introduced the concept The New Aesthetic organised by James Bridle and included Aaron Cope, Joanne McNeil and Russell Davies.[41][42][43]

28 February 2013 Terrett was a speaker at the Design Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa.[44]

10 March 2014 Terrett spoke at the Bloomberg Businessweek Design conference in San Francisco, California.[45]

23 September 2015 Terrett gave the Royal Society of Arts Student Design Awards Keynote in London: 'From persuasion to usability; Design meets the internet'.[46]

References

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  1. ^ "Introducing the design principles alpha for GDS". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  2. ^ Tim O'Reilly and Jennifer Pahlka visit Government Digital Service. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  3. ^ "Getting the digital house in order". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  4. ^ "Gov.uk designer Ben Terrett leaves Government Digital Service". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Ben Terrett UAL". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  6. ^ "From persuasion to usability design meets the internet". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  7. ^ "Spoof brand names snapped up for real". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  8. ^ "Newspaper Club project is a winner for London agency". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  9. ^ "Ben Terrett on designing GOV.UK". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  10. ^ Wainwright, Oliver (16 April 2013). "'Direct and well-mannered' government website named design of the year". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  11. ^ "Gov.uk wins Design of the Year award". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Government Digital Service D&AD Awards 2013 Pencil Winner". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  13. ^ Black Pencil Winner 2013 - Gov.uk - Government Digital Service. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  14. ^ "UK GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE: MOVING BEYOND A WEBSITE". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  15. ^ "Gov.uk designer Ben Terrett leaves Government Digital Service". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  16. ^ Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery' (London Publishing Partnership, May 2018). ASIN 1907994785.
  17. ^ "Design director behind Gov.uk quits GDS following departure of head Mike Braken". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  18. ^ "Ben Terrett and former GDS colleagues join the Co-operative". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  19. ^ "Co-op restructures, rebrands and revives 1968 logo". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  20. ^ "Public Digital: the strategy of delivery". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  21. ^ "Russell Davies & Ben Terrett Summer Exhibition Explorer 2018". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  22. ^ "Ben Terrett UAL". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  23. ^ "D&AD CEO Departs as a Result of Cost-Cutting Measures". Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  24. ^ "Revealed: the 45 members of the new HS2 design panel". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  25. ^ "GOV.UK HS2 Design Panel". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  26. ^ "Ben Terrett declines D&AD presidency citing lack of diversity". Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  27. ^ "Pentagram's Naresh Ramchandani announced as D&AD President". Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  28. ^ "DESIGN MUSEUM BRIT INSURANCE DESIGNS OF THE YEAR 2010 : THE NEWSPAPER CLUB, UK". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  29. ^ "'Direct and well-mannered' government website named design of the year". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  30. ^ "Gov.uk wins Design of the Year award". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  31. ^ "UK government website wins Designs of the Year 2013". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  32. ^ "Government Digital Service D&AD Awards 2013 Pencil Winner". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  33. ^ Black Pencil Winner 2013 - Gov.uk - Government Digital Service. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  34. ^ "Design Week Hall of Fame".
  35. ^ "The Royal Designers for Industry 2018 have been revealed". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  36. ^ "UAL talents Es Devlin OBE and Ben Terrett elected Royal Designers for Industry". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  37. ^ "Es Deviln and others win big at 2018's Royal Designers for Industry awards".
  38. ^ "University of the Arts London (UAL) Honours Twelve game-changing creatives".
  39. ^ "Kyoorius Designyatra 09: Ben Terrett on his changing perspectives as a designer". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  40. ^ "Kyoorius Designyatra Speakers 2009 MUMBAI INDIA". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  41. ^ Berry, D. M. (2012) Computationality and the New Aesthetic, Imperica, http://www.imperica.com/viewsreviews/david-m-berry-computationality-and-the-new-aesthetic Archived 15 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  42. ^ Bridle, J. (2012b) #sxaesthetic, accessed 06/04/2012, http://booktwo.org/notebook/sxaesthetic
  43. ^ Bridle, J. (2011b) Regarding the library with envious eyes, Booktwo.org, accessed 05/04/2012, http://booktwo.org/notebook/books-computational-value
  44. ^ "GOV.UK could be this generation's tube map". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  45. ^ Ben Terrett - Bloomberg Businessweek Design Conference 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  46. ^ "From persuasion to usability; Design meets the internet". Retrieved 2 December 2018.
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