Starting with a University brief to undertake fashion-style photography, “Happygoth” was a response by Ben to a noticeable trend at the time of chain stores rebranding what were traditionally seen as ‘outsider' fashions (such as Punk), to make them more mainstream and commercial, toning down the counter-cultural elements for a mainstream audience.

With the tagline ‘Happy is the new Moody', the initial series of images were shot in the studio in the style of a major high-street brand at the time who were running a similar campaign. The idea was to show a female model in various items of clothing associated with the Goth subculture, but invariably smiling, and with various colourful/cheerful props (flowers, balloons, soft toys etc) to contrast with the overall dark ‘look' of the clothing and makeup.

The shoot was subsequently developed as a series of fashion images shot on location with two different models, as part of the Britannia Model Village. These later shoots would provide an array of fake advertising and billboard images as set dressings for these miniature sculpture projects, as well as provide valuable experience with the complexities of shooting out on location with various models, assistants, and large amounts of props and costumes.

More recently the concept has been developed along illustration/cartoon lines, for a planned range of T-Shirt designs and related items.