Ben Hulse: Olympic Designer

posted: march 12. 2009

When the final runner in the cross-Canada Olympic torch relay reaches B.C. Place Stadium next February 12, she or he will be holding a torch designed in part by SFU's School of Interactive Arts and Technology grad Ben Hulse.

Hulse, who graduated from the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) in 2005, is part of a team developing the “look of the games”, including the torch used in the cross-Canada torch relay and other aspects of the Olympic experience.

“I've been fortunate to be involved with a pretty wide range of projects. When I started two years ago, I was part of a small design team tasked to create the ‘look of the Games’ -- the graphic system which will appear on the field of play, city streets, merchandise, and pretty much everything directly associated with the Games. It was a very exciting, but daunting task.”

Hulse began his career as a freelance graphic designer even before graduating from SIAT. A few years later, he received a phone call from Vancouver Olympics 2010 (VANOC). VANOC’s director of design had seen Hulse’s work on a design industry website and wanted the young designer to join the design team for the Games.

Designing an identity for the Games was a complex task, Hulse says. “The identity needed to represent the host region, but speak to Canada as well. We needed to solidify what the 2010 games would be about from a thematic and visual perspective, so we looked at our unique multiculturalism, our relationship with the environment, and our passion for sport. After a few brainstorms, field trips, and thousands of photos, we came up with the solution.”

Hulse was part of a small VANOC team that worked with Bombardier Inc. on the design of the Olympic torches. “It was a very collaborative process. Bombardier were consistently sending ideas and we were consistently playing with them, morphing them, combining them, and complimenting them. Two designs rose to the top and we fused their styles together to create what I feel is the right torch for Vancouver 2010 -- a design which is progressive, Canadian, in line with the Torch Relay brand and Vancouver 2010 games identity.”

Hulse says he is now focussing on photography -- looking at the best way to capture the Olympic and Paralympic games.

He says the SIAT program has helped him in his current role with VANOC. “During the SIAT program, it was sometimes daunting covering such a huge range of design disciplines and media. But that is now the reality of my work. In one day, I can go from illustrating an emblem, to art directing a photo shoot, to weighing in on the choice of a music score for a video, to tweaking an animation, to providing feedback on uniforms or community cauldrons.”

Besides being a designer, Hulse is also a musician. “I've been in the music industry for over a decade writing, recording, and touring with my group run the red light, and as artist management to a fantastic group called Whitfield. Through music I've been involved in countless recording sessions and concerts all over Canada in virtually every capacity including management, production, promotion, marketing, design, photography, and of course, as a musician."

Interview by Terry Lavender, SFU Surrey

Links

For more information on Ben: benhulse.com

Some of the Olympic designs Ben Hulse has contributed to: www.surrey.sfu.ca/feature_news/images/olympic_designs/