Meet Ben Marriott

 

Hello! 👋

I'm Ben Marriott, a contemporary wildlife artist from Nottinghamshire, England, and, as you can probably tell from my store, nature is my passion.

Since I was young, I've always enjoyed observing the birds, flora, and other wildlife in the United Kingdom, as I regularly visited nature reserves and other such places of interest with my family whilst we were on holiday in our caravan.

Regardless of whether I was watching the gannets at Bempton Cliffs, or looking out for ravens at the top of Blencathra, as a child, I'd always have my handy 'I-Spy' book and pocket binoculars to help me identify things!

After leaving college for an apprenticeship many years later, I found myself trying to make my way in life and working in multiple customer service jobs. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and that changed everything!

Throughout the pandemic, I was working long hours as an essential worker at my local convenience store. As time went on, this became increasingly difficult, and I then discovered that I had a health condition which affects my joints and muscles, forcing me to reconsider my aspirations in life.

Because I'd enjoyed many hours watching the birds on our garden bird feeders over the years, I decided in 2022 to have a go at creating a vibrant and striking digital art piece for fun, featuring one of the many brilliant birds I'd seen throughout my life.

This design turned out better than I originally expected, and, after receiving encouragement from my friends and family, I continued creating more until I had enough to make a small range of greetings cards in March 2023.

Without any sales figures or art qualifications to back me up, I approached the owner of Iris Blue, the local card and gift shop in my hometown of Bingham, and asked if they'd be willing to give my cards a chance in their store. Much to my surprise, they said yes!

Over the next month, my cards absolutely flew off the shelves, and I was fortunate to receive an incredible amount of support from my local community. I could barely believe it!

As soon as I restocked my designs, the same thing happened again. This gave me the courage to continue creating new designs and approach a few other local retailers about stocking my products.

Within a few months, I'd managed to secure my first retailer away from my local area, as I decided to ask the owners of Occasional Cards in Kingsbridge about stocking my products whilst I was visiting the town on holiday. This was a huge step for me, as it opened the door to working with retailers all around the UK, and B. Marriott Design quickly began to turn into a career instead of just a hobby.

After a lot of incredibly hard work over the years since then, I've created over 80 individual designs, and expanded my range of products to include many wonderful gifts like coasters, chopping boards, notebooks, and more!

Now, since B. Marriott Design is my full-time focus as a small business, I also exhibit my products at various trade shows around the United Kingdom as a way of meeting many wonderful retailers.

At present, my products have now been stocked by over 120 amazing retailers around the UK, and I'm continually adding new designs and product ranges to my collection so that I have something for everyone.

I wouldn't be able to run B. Marriott Design as I do today if it wasn't for the endless support from my family, friends, and retailers since the start of my journey, so I'm extremely grateful for all of the help and encouragement I've received along the way.

On that note, I'd also like to personally thank you for taking the time to visit my site and read about my story. I hope you like my artwork just as much as I've enjoyed creating it!

- Ben 🙂🐦