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Harry Edward William

@harryedwardwilliam

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Hackney, East London 🇬🇷🇨🇾🇬🇧
Creative Director @motherdesign | @motherlondon
Intermittent photographer
Previously @apple LDN | SF

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A year on from losing Dad, I recently had the privilege of opening up his old plans chest and rediscovering an incredible archive of work.

After a successful career in advertising, he pursued his love of humorous illustration. What began as a passion project became an incredibly successful second career at a moment the craft boomed, before the digital revolution arrived.

Watching him work in his studio in the converted loft of our Victorian home was a formative part of my childhood.

As a child, I wasn’t fully aware of how far his work travelled beyond our everyday lives. It appeared on supermarket shelves, in schools, on billboards, in books, and in campaigns for some of Britain’s most recognisable brands. Over the years he worked with British Gas, Tesco, McDonald’s, Barclays, Stella Artois and many more.

His character designs were supremely animatable and distinctly British – qualities that now bring to mind studios like Aardman, whose work we both adored. He had a knowing, self-deprecating and often risqué sense of humour that we laughed along with day to day, in the spirit of everything from seaside ‘kiss me quick’ postcards to Monty Python and Harry Enfield & Chums, putting people and character at the heart of every story.

This archive tells his story better than I can.

It begins here:

The cheek and wit were there from the start.

Dad with his good friend and business partner Peter, shortly after setting up their agency together.

With his first dog. Years later we’d get Seymour, our beloved Old English Sheepdog.

Dad, my sister Daisy and I with the sled that Granddad built. Daisy went everywhere in that hat (including to sleep at night).

With Grandma and Granddad. We can’t remember if this was Daisy’s teddy or mine. And I have no idea why there’s a pair of shoes on the bench beside Dad.

Self-portrait. This became the company header for Robin Edmonds Illustration and was later turned into a rubber stamp that we loved stamping onto artwork covers before dispatch.

One of the original hand-rendered Penguin Biscuit illustrations. Look closely and you can see the white paint where he carefully retouched the line work to his liking.

The full line-up of by @harryedwardwilliam

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4 months ago

Camila, Las Islas Canarias taken in Islas Canarias by @harryedwardwilliam

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a year ago

Quiet moments of contemplation. Ongoing series.
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#reflecting#contemplate#meditation#fujifilmxt3#spi_bnw#candidphotography#photocinematica#cinebible#fisheyelemag#portbox#nowherediary#verybusymag#life_is_street#eyeshotmag#dreamermagazine#raw_bnw#blancnoir2 taken in London Borough of Hackney by @harryedwardwilliam

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3 years ago

Snapshots of Malta. June, 2023.
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Mirrorless/mobile taken in Malta-Valetta by @harryedwardwilliam

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3 years ago

Scenes from Sicily, 2023 (more moments from the trip in my Highlights). taken in Sicily, Italy by @harryedwardwilliam

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3 years ago

Katia and Ale (sisters), 2023 taken in Sicilia by @harryedwardwilliam

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3 years ago

One of the most striking animals I’ve ever stumbled across. All the more imposing up in the fog-shrouded mountains on the edge of America. by @harryedwardwilliam

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6 years ago

Victoria Park, East London by @harryedwardwilliam

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6 years ago

A moment of calm. by @harryedwardwilliam

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6 years ago

Venice Beach, California by @harryedwardwilliam

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6 years ago

Beale Street taken in Memphis, Tennessee by @harryedwardwilliam

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9 years ago

Beale Street taken in Memphis, Tennessee by @harryedwardwilliam

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9 years ago