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Jo Ham

Founder & Creative Director

Ham

POSITION

Founder & Creative Director

COMPANY

Ham

SCENE

Lifestyle & Culture

SOCIAL

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What makes Jo Ham a Global Shaker?

Not every illustrator specialising in social commentary earns lucrative contracts with major global brands like Nike, Topshop, Colette and the Body Shop. But Jo Ham — founder of HAM — is not just any illustrator.

Ham — winner of Natwest’s UK Creative Industries Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018, and the Aviva Women of the Future Arts and Culture Prize — graduated with a degree in Fine Art from Oxford University. After stint working as an brand strategist in PR she formed her eponymous studio in 2011, using rabbit silhouettes to explore life’s simple pleasures, daily rituals and hobbies.

Her work appeared as public art for London Design Festival’s collaboration with Kings Cross train station, as bespoke packaging for The Body Shop’s Forever Against Animal Testing campaign, and in collaboration with human rights organisation Liberty. Her commissions as a mixed-media artist, drawing on fashion, photography and drawing, have been produced in collaboration with The Berkeley Hotel, Eurostar and Nike.

“Starting and then growing a business is one of the hardest things I’ve done,” Ham said in an interview with Honestmum. “It is incredibly tough. I often refer to HAM as my first born as it really has been like having a baby… you love it, nurture it, make sacrifices and often don’t get much sleep! But the reward is huge.”

Last updated: June 4, 2019