Who the hell is Harry Ead?

We’re a group of creatives who are serious about changing the world for the better. Introducing the people of DixonBaxi; get to know some of the brilliant minds behind our work as we dive into all things professional and personal. We caught up with Harry–our creative director–about his return to DixonBaxi, a career inspired by Oasis and how art might just save us all. This is the rest of that conversation:

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Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Harry, a creative director at DixonBaxi.

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What’s your story?
… Morning Glory. Need a little time to wake up. Wake up.

I grew up in Swindon, the spiritual home of roundabouts and the Oasis Leisure Centre, rumoured to be the inspiration behind the band’s name. A love of that band opened up a world of Mancunian music and the iconic covers of Peter Saville and Factory Records. From then on I wanted to be a designer.

After art college and university I was lucky enough to work with some amazing people like Martin (epitype), Chris, Richard and Helen (Red Stone), James W (Rufus Leonard) and obviously Si, AB and Dan (DixonBaxi) who all invested a huge amount of time and effort into helping me develop as a creative.

After a short hiatus from DixonBaxi it’s been amazing to be back and working with an amazingly eclectic team, hopefully passing on a bit of what I’ve picked up along the way.

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What are you working on right now?
Being a CD means I get to work across lots of things which are challenging but also exciting. Flipping from something as high energy as gaming to complex and intellectual as consultancy takes some mental gymnastics but it is a part of what I love most about work at DixonBaxi. We attract an eclectic range of clients who all want something unique and won’t settle for anything expected.

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“I think we need design, art, and creativity more than ever. The world is at a pivotal moment, and if you were to only listen to the news it feels like humanity is well and truly fucked. The good news is that we are also living in an age of unprecedented innovation. Design surely sits at the heart of that and has the opportunity to create things and build optimism rather than just blowing shit up or knocking things down all the time.”

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Describe your working style in 3 words.
Embrace the chaos.

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Tell us about some of your interests. What are you into?
Like most designers, I love any expression of creativity from music, fashion, art, and film. But I mostly like being in the city where I’ve spent most of my life.

My mum had a vintage clothes shop on Portobello Road when I was a teenager. Braving the 5 am starts to haul bags of clothes up to London on the train was always worth it to get a few hours to run around Ladbroke Grove and Camden Town on my own, and I’ve never wanted to leave it since.  

As a city it’s changed a huge amount in the 22 years since I moved here, some of it bad, some of it good but it’s still a hugely inspiring blend of people, ideas and culture that isn’t like anywhere else in the world. I don’t think you can underestimate the importance of the environment you are in to stay open-minded, inspired and motivated.

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Do you think design can change the world? How?
I think we need design, art, and creativity more than ever. The world is at a pivotal moment, and if you were to only listen to the news it feels like humanity is well and truly fucked. The good news is that we are also living in an age of unprecedented innovation. Design surely sits at the heart of that and has the opportunity to create things and build optimism rather than just blowing shit up or knocking things down all the time.

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If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
Obviously ‘no more wars’ or ‘stop global warming’… but if I was being selfish it would also be London’s shitty licensing laws (one of the shortsighted changes in London over the years). No one wants to stop drinking at 11 pm. No one wants to stop dancing at 2 am.

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What’s the last song you listened to?
I was having a bit of a nostalgia trip this morning. Fischerspooner’s Emerge added quite an intense soundtrack to getting this done. Especially as it is 10 am.

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Why do you do what you do? What motivates you?
Who knows why we do what we do! I loved the design at school and I still love it now. I still find huge satisfaction when things take shape, and lose sleep when they don’t. After nearly 20 years of working that buzz still hasn’t gone, which is good as I literally don’t know how to do anything else.

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What’s your definition of good design?
Good design can and should take an infinite amount of forms. The beauty of what we do is that it is subjective so I think good design needs to connect with people and make them feel something – good or bad is better than nothing!

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