Ben Eine

Benjamin Flynn, born in London in 1970 and known professionally known as Eine, is an English artist and a contemporary of Banksy. Eine began his career as a graffiti artist, using shop shutters as canvases and spreading his “Eine” tag throughout East London. He is regarded as one of the first to explore graffiti lettering forms in the U.K., developing his “Eine” tag before moving away from traditional tagging and spearheading the push for graffiti to be separated from street art, noting that graffiti is “for kicks”, whereas street artists consider the environment and the viewer. His shift from tagging to his trademark neon alphabet lettering helped drive a shift in the social acceptability of street art, most notably contributing to its preservation in East London; the Council of Tower Hamlets revised a policy on graffiti, allowing popular pieces to remain as tourist attractions.

The success of his signature bright and positive style enabled Eine to spread his lettering around the streets of London, Hastings, Newcastle, Paris, and Stockholm. His vivid and recognizably cheerful letters provide a refreshing change from the often inscrutable tags left behind by traditional graffiti artists. If Eine got lucky, he would spell whole words across walls of shutters, one letter for each shutter.

With a distinctly conspicuous style, Eine’s recognition grew and with it, commercial avenues opened up; Eine founded Pictures On Walls (POW) with Banksy, and thus accessed the commercial art world. He has produced numerous fonts now in commercial use, while his work is an integral element of the varicoloured East London areas of Shoreditch and Brick Lane. In 2010, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron gifted U.S. President Barack Obama a piece of Eine’s artwork, and a particular area of London was renamed Alphabet City after his art, demonstrating the success Eine has had in pushing street art away from graffiti and into its own socially acceptable space for expression. Eine’s work is now held permanently in the Victoria & Albert Museum, MoMA, the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi, and in 2020 designed a pod for the London Eye’s 20th anniversary.