Visual artist/designer Ben Lewis is cool. Better yet, make that off-the-charts cool. I met up with the uber-creative last week at 20c Design — the Design District mecca for 20th-century furniture and art — to hear what he’s been up to. Where do I start?
First on the list, Lewis is working at 20c part-time. “Everything in here is amazing. It’s Eames, Platner, or some crazy thing. We’re sitting at a Knoll table. And I’m getting to work with all this furniture and see how the masters made this stuff.”
He points to a big horse made out of fancy hangers. “That was from Barney’s New York, like right in the middle of the store. How perfect would that be for Nancy Nasher?”
Lewis then shows me a Clairtone G2 turntable. “LeBron James just bought one of those from us and he put it on his Twitter.”
This leads to a conversation about Lewis’ other love: vinyl.
A self-admitted audiophile, many of his projects have musical roots. He was instrumental in the look and feel of Josey Records, working closely with owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello on the original Farmers Branch location and subsequent satellites.
“We were old friends from the DJ world. When they were opening Josey, they asked me to help out with the creative direction,” Lewis says. “They’re now one of the largest independent record stores in the states.”
He’s also apprenticing with renowned woodworker John Semrad. “He makes these incredible speakers. “When I found out what he was doing, I told him I have to work for you — even if you don’t pay me.”
It’s good training for another upcoming project. Lewis is collaborating with an old high school friend to open a vinyl bar in South Africa, where he grew up. “Joe was the first DJ I’d ever met. I helped him set up his sound system, the school disco, that kind of thing. It had a massive effect on me.”
At 17, he moved back to the states, gravitating to underground raves and parties. “At a certain point, they started asking me to do the decoration. But I also needed to work.”
Lewis took a job selling shoes at Nordstrom. (“I was Al Bundy,” he jokes.)
But he was more interested in the visual staff. “They were going around the store doing cool stuff. I knew immediately that if I stayed in retail that’s what I wanted to do.”
Turns out, he was good. Really good.
Lewis currently dresses windows for a clientele that reads like a who’s who of luxury retail: Fendi, Dior, Traffic LA, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, and Stanley Korshak, among them.
His favorite was a stint at NorthPark Barney’s. “They let me do crazy displays. On my first day, we built a moose and covered it in denim and watches.”
Restaurateurs took notice. Among the most memorable projects: A giant woodblock wall in the former Shoals (“probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done”). Currently, he’s creating wall art for Gloria’s Latin Cuisine.
There’s more of Lewis’ handiwork at the AT&T Discovery District. The beer garden’s Jaxon the Jackelope? Upcycled logs. Its 80 taps? Deer antlers. And that neon-like rendition of Hatziel Flores’ work? After months of trial and error, he replicated the effect using plywood, acrylic and LED lighting.
Lewis refuels on his family’s 32-acre property in Seville, a 25-minute drive from downtown Dallas. Figuring things out is in his DNA.
“I’ve started a whole room at the house that’s full of records,” he said. “My current goal is how to fit 83,000 records on a shipping container to Johannesburg.”
