Designers We Love: HAM

INTERVIEWED BY Lindi Brownell Meiring

After featuring Jo Robinson’s delightful bouncing rabbit print as one of our recent Picks Of The Week, we couldn’t resist finding out more about this London-based designer.

How did HAM come about?

After finishing my fine art degree at The Ruskin I began a career in commercial design and took up a role as a strategist at a creative consultancy in London. During the six years I spent at the agency I continued to create in my spare time, predominately sketching and experimenting in the darkroom. I’d been longing to develop a series of animal motifs I’d first started back in university and so in 2010, with a set of silhouettes and an idea, I took the plunge and left my job. A year later HAM was born.

From mugs and notebooks to screen prints and tea towels, we just can’t get enough of your adorable rabbit series. Why did you choose to go with bunnies?

As a farmer’s daughter, named Jo Ham (and yes we did keep pigs!), agriculture and animals have always been important themes within my work. This combined with my interest in the banal and a love for British nostalgia, in particular its quirks and rituals, gave me a clear starting point for HAM. The brand’s protagonists were constructed in my head, but were loosely based on the animal characters that surrounded me growing up, a pig called Primrose and a pet rabbit called Humphrey. As a child I often imagined them interacting like we did – an idea that stuck and has underpinned much of my creative practice to date.

Do you have any new designs launching soon?

I’m very excited to share that we have just launched our new ceramics line – a series of fine bone china mugs carefully crafted and decorated by hand in Stoke-on-Trent at one of the last remaining English potteries. Presenting HAM’s first foray into pattern, the range includes Wine Tasting Rabbit, Wallpapering Rabbit, Ski Jumping Rabbit, Graffiti Rabbit and Window Cleaning Rabbit.

How do our readers in South Africa get hold of your products?

Our full range is available to buy online at hammade.com and we ship to South Africa on request – just drop me a line at jo@hammade.com to arrange delivery.

For more information, visit hammade.com or follow HAM on Twitter or Instagram.