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Productive Play Proliferates Piles: Ben Denzer Visits Ohio State Design

October 17, 2025

Productive Play Proliferates Piles: Ben Denzer Visits Ohio State Design

Photo of audience sitting at Thompson Library lecture room

By: Grace Kim, Industrial Design BSD 2027; William Nickley, Assistant Professor of Industrial Design

On October 8th, 2025, Ohio State Design and the Ohio State student chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) welcomed Ben Denzer to Thompson Library for his formal lecture, Productive Play Proliferates. Denzer’s talk came after two days filled with workshops, an installation entitled Hayes Hall Heap, classroom visits, and meals with design students, staff, and faculty. Prior to Denzer’s talk, IDSA president Will Tyrrell thanked the Department, Ohio State University Libraries, treasurer Matthew Colton for grant support, and faculty advisors Assistant Professor Will Nickley and Associate Professor Amanda Huynh for helping bring Denzer to campus.

Student Will introducing Bed Denzer
Photo credit: Grace Kim

During Ben Denzer’s campus visit, students and faculty explored three key ideas that blended humor, rigor, and reflection on creative process. Denzer proposed that volume beats perfection: by making many tiny trials, patterns emerge and choices become apparent. This “productive play” through piles of attempts helped participants embrace a light, almost weird division in their projects—working in separate, fast-moving modes to sustain momentum. He also invited everyone to “treat the book as a system,” showing how in artist books, form and concept must respond to shifting content rather than merely housing it. Finally, Denzer reframed design as relationship-building, reminding participants that design is not just about individual artifacts but about the connections between people, objects, and images that give those artifacts meaning. 

Ben Denzer giving a presentation
Photo credit: Grace Kim

At the Fine Arts Library, librarian Courtney Hunt expanded our Ben Denzer collection by acquiring his 816-page MFA thesis, Making Then Meaning, which can be viewed by request alongside a companion video. Denzer also generously gifted a copy of 234 Acknowledgements, now available in the same collection. Students can explore these and other artist books by Denzer through Ohio State University Libraries—either by browsing the online catalog or asking at the reference desk to view them in person.

Thanks & credits: Appreciation to the Department of Design, OSU Libraries, and the IDSA OSU student chapter and board for supporting the event.

Artist books by Denzer
Photo credit: Grace Kim

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