Hi, I'm Benny 👋

I'm a poet and designer living in Kansas City with my wife Carly and our dog Wrinn. My days are split between building digital products as a Lead UX Designer and exploring the messier, more beautiful work of creative self-expression through poetry, photography, and writing.

I’ve spent over a decade turning complex problems into clear, intuitive tools. I use design to help other people make sense of the world. But design is only part of how I make sense of the world for myself. Writing, especially poetry, is where I process life, emotions, and the sometimes overwhelming journey of becoming. My creative practice is deeply influenced by therapy and introspection, and I'm drawn to themes of self-discovery, growth, and the tangled reality of being human.

What This Place Is

I think of this website as a digital garden. It's a space I tend to regularly, where ideas quietly bloom and creativity grows like wildflowers alongside the busy highway of the internet.

Most of the web rushes past at 75 miles per hour.
Urgent.
Optimized.
Competing for attention.
But wildflowers don't compete. They just grow where they are, adding beauty to the margins, catching the eye of anyone willing to slow down and notice.

That's my aim: to plant things worth noticing.

Poems about chaos and beauty. Reflections on creativity, design, and the mind. Photographs from trails, coffee shops, and still moments. A book in progress. Fragments that don’t fit anywhere else.

This is a place to wander and pay attention. It will keep evolving as I experiment with new forms.

Walk the paths. Pause when something draws you in.

(To cut through the romance for a quick sec... this website is a long-held bundle of scattered ideas and dreams, finally organized into something I'm really proud of. I built it so you could enter my world and feel at home. If something would help, let me know.)

What You'll Find Here

Writing – Essays, reflections, and occasional updates on creativity, design, and life.

Work – A portfolio of design projects that showcase my approach to digital product design, UX, and branding.

Special Projects – Deeper, subscriber-exclusive collections:

• Poetry – An evolving collection exploring themes of self-discovery and growth
• While Away – My first book, shared as I write it
• FRGMNTS – An ongoing poetry newsletter with 65+ issues
• ENJYMNTS – A curated index of inspiration and things I find worth paying attention to
• Photography – Visual moments from trails, travels, and everyday life

A Few Things I Love

Early morning runs with friends. Exploring new coffee shops with Carly. Hiking with Wrinn. Reading poetry that rewires how I see the world. Building products that help people change theirs. Writing when the right words arrive. Witnessing someone bring a piece of their own creative self-expression to life.

Stay Awhile

If something here resonates, I'd love for you to stick around. Subscribe to get new poems, reflections, and creative work delivered to your inbox. Or just browse around and see what catches your eye.

You can reach me directly on the Contact page.

Thanks for slowing down and stopping by. 🌿