About Ben Breitenstein and Composit
Having grown up with an unhealthy obsession for both Lego and MacGyver, Benjamin was destined for a career rooted in both problem solving and making things.
Ben started his design career fresh-faced, with a post-graduate diploma in Industrial Design from the Queensland University of Technology in 2005. He scored his first design job at Mode Design with the aid of a portfolio consisting of primarily of gig posters. These were designed when he should have been studying, instead of letting punk rock ruin his life. Still, it gave him an opportunity to hone his DIY graphic design skills. While employed as a graphic designer at Mode, management appreciated having someone in that seat with practical built-environment knowledge and a swag of 3D modelling skills.
After 4 years or so, he was leading the graphic design team and became the ‘go to’ guy for in-house 3D architectural viz, which combined his love of design, illustration and 3D rendering.
Early gig posters and architectural renders—some of Ben’s earliest creative endeavours.
After developing an interest in furniture design and wanting to scratch his industrial design itch, he managed to talk his way into a spot with reknowned Brisbane industrial designer, Jason Bird, at the then very small design studio, Luxxbox. Six years passed and with Jason at the helm, the team grew from staff of two (for a while it was just Jason and Ben), in a 50 sqm shopfront, to a 1400 sqm factory and a team of ten. Jason was a great mentor, and due to the nature of small business, Ben learned about every facet of the business, from designing product, documenting for manufacture and then marketing it, including producing print material, studio photography, copy writing, videography and artist illustrations/3D renders.
A handful of the wild lighting and furniture projects Ben spearheaded at Luxxbox during his time there.
All the while, since first dabbling with photoshop to make those band posters in 2002, throughout the entirety of his career, Ben has maintained a passion for music. Punk rock continues to ruin his life and as a drummer he still writes, records and performs with a number of Brisbane-based and interstate bands.
WE SET SAIL sold out the Triffid twice in 2021. Photos by James Latter.
As a true ‘all-rounder’ Ben has had the benefit of dipping his toes in to so many different disciplines over the last 15 years, but it’s his determination to do things ‘like he means it’ which drives him to go as deep as he has to, to make sure his work is of an international standard.
A selection of stills from Ben’s video and cinematography portfolio
More recently Ben has become swept up in the third wave of virtual reality and is currently producing a number of 3D, volumetric, immersive experiences for clients both large and small. The fun of this field is that no one really knows what the next killer VR or AR app is going to be, but trying to find out is extremely fun and kind of mind-bending at the same time. Ben is a diligent student of the evolving set of best practices around designing experiences for virtual reality. This is particularly important because the vast majority of people underestimate the constraints, affordances and particular considerations that make a VR experience feel as good as it possibly can.
The ‘VR giggles’ is a term for the sense of wonderment and elation most people feel when experiencing modern virtual-reality for the first time.
As the years go on, many strange requests have been thrown his way and Ben’s folio now sports projects ranging in everything from product and furniture design to graphic design, 3D visualisation, photography and musical composition. Benjamin's work has won awards, been featured in media around the world both online and in print, as well as being featured on television in the United States.
If you have a project that you think is hard to put into one box, then Composit just might be the right team to help you.
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