Williams Murray Hamm (WMH) is a brand innovation, design and strategy agency based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It specialises in inventing or reinventing brands.

History

Founded in 1997, Williams Murray Hamm was acquired in 2006 by Loewy Group, a business that was subsequently acquired by Writtle Holdings in 2011. Chairman & Founder, Richard Williams and Creative Partner, Garrick Hamm both remain on the board of directors. Founding Partner, Richard Murray died in 2010. Wybe Magermans was appointed to the board in 2016 and became the agency's Managing Director in 2019.

Work and accolades

WMH's work in

Fast-moving Consumer Goods Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), also known as consumer packaged goods (CPG), are products that are sold quickly and at a relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable household goods such as packaged foods, beverages, toiletries, cand ...

(FMCG) packaging for GSK's

Horlicks Horlicks is a sweet malted milk hot drink powder developed by founders James and William Horlick. It was first sold as "Horlick's Infant and Invalids Food", soon adding "aged and travellers" to their label. In the early 20th century, it was so ...

Hovis Hovis Ltd is a British company that produces flour and bread. The brand originated in Stoke-on-Trent and was first mass-produced in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1886. It became part of Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) in 1962 after a succession of merge ...

, McVitie's Jaffa Cakes and

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

SO organics and Sainsbury's Basics led to the business being named Design Agency of the Year by Marketing Magazine in 2002 and 2004. WMH has won DBA Design Effectiveness Awards for its work on Here Organics, Sainsbury's SO organic, Wild Brew (which also won a D&AD yellow pencil), while Hovis and Clipper Teas won the DBA Design Effectiveness Grand Prix in 2002 and 2004 respectively. Notable WMH clients have included 2003's redesign of the

Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

identity, 2004's relaunch for

Fortnum & Mason Fortnum & Mason (colloquially often shortened to just Fortnum's) is an upmarket department store in Piccadilly, London, with additional stores at The Royal Exchange, St Pancras railway station, Heathrow Airport in London and K11 Musea In Hong ...

, via a brand book and repackaging exercise. The company has maintained an eight-year relationship with Syngenta, the Swiss agrochemicals business. Other WMH clients include

Beazley Group Beazley PLC is the British parent company of specialist insurance businesses with operations in Europe, the US, and Asia. Beazley manages six Lloyd's syndicates. Beazley plc is incorporated in the UK. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

, Brummells of London, Way to Blue and Jamie Oliver's store ''Recipease'' venture, Burger delivery start-up Chosen Bun, Magic Me, JuiceBurst (Purity Soft Drinks),

Syngenta Syngenta AG is a provider of agricultural science and technology, in particular seeds and pesticides with its management headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It is owned by ChemChina, a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Syngenta was founded in 2 ...

, charit
Ella's Home
and globally for

Carlsberg Carlsberg may refer to: Places * Carlsberg (district), a district in Copenhagen, Denmark ** Carlsberg station, its train station * Carlsberg, Germany, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Carlsberg Fjord, Greenland Other uses * Carlsbe ...

and

Castrol Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for com ...

. More recent work includes the launch o
Waitrose & Partners Free From
range of foods, creation of completely new container shipping company
Ocean Network Express
(ONE), brand positioning and identity redesign for USA based food producer Lamb Weston; and brand world creation for Pernod Ricard's leading boutique single malt whisky
Aberlour
In 2015, the agency was awarded the top prize at The Drum's inaugural Dream Awards and gold at the Fresh Awards for its packaging design for UK erotica brand Coco de Mer. Additionally, WMH won gold in the body category at the celebrated Pentawards for its work with beauty brand Prismologie. 2016 saw WMH's return to win gold at the Design Effectiveness Awards (Design Business Association) for their interactive brand design work with JuiceBurst (Purity Soft Drinks). The award-winning continued for its brand identity and packaging work for Coco de Mer winning the coveted D&AD Yellow Pencil Award, the Drum Design Award, Design Week Award (Package Design Category) and Creative

Review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

Annual where it was awarded 'Best in Book: Design'. In 2017, WMH started a new division that specialises in implementing large packaging roll-out and major cross-media campaigns
WMHAdaptive
works for clients such as Waitrose, Castrol and Network Rail.

Publications

* WMH updated ''The Little Book of Don'ts in Brand Design'' in 2004 * Richard Murray wrote ''Churnmore A True Taste of Brand Management'' in 2007 * The three partners delivered ''Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time'', a celebration of the company's ten years in business in 2009 *To celebrate its 20th anniversary, WMH published ''Blood, Sweat & Ideas''. A retrospective of the agency's work over the past two decades.

References

External links

Williams Murray Hamm website
{{Authority control Design companies of the United Kingdom Design companies established in 1997 British companies established in 1997 1997 establishments in England