Background
Nick Benson began working in his family business, The John Stevens Shop at age fifteen for his father, John Everett Benson.
Nick Benson began working in his family business, The John Stevens Shop at age fifteen for his father, John Everett Benson.
He studied Drawing and Design at State University of New York at Purchase in 1986. Benson spent 1987 at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel in Basel, Switzerland where he studied calligraphy, type design, typography, and drawing under Andre Gurtler, Christian Mengelt and Armin Hofmann.
He was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow. Nick is a third generation stone carver and letterer. He returned to the United States. in 1988 and continued to work under John Benson in The John Stevens Shop.
His father passed on the business to him in 1993.
Benson expands the traditional arts of hand lettering and stone carving through his designs. He is also committed to teaching young artisans, in the hopes that they will go on to create their own works and thereby ensure that the legacy of this centuries-old artistic practice endures.
He has had several design students, especially from nearby Rhode Island School of Design, and apprentices work with him in the shop and on projects.
Married; 2 children.