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Harry Watts by Birch

Opinion by Richard Baird Posted 17 April 2014

Logotype and headed paper designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts

Harry Watts is a British photographer who takes a systematic approach to location and explores the relationship between people and objects. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and was selected by Italian Vogue for solo exhibitions in London and Madrid.

Harry’s brand identity, developed by London based studio Birch, is representative of his unique process of removing excess information through the simple combination of a single bold, uppercase and condensed sans-serif typeface, black ink and plenty of unprinted white space, and utilises an unconventional structure, ‘ruthlessly’ pushing text off edges, to draw distinction from these. Elements such as surface texture and newsprint are introduced to reinforce project specific concepts such as high quality materials, discarded objects and mass communication whilst retaining the non-essential philosophy. The result is an unwavering consistent austerity that successfully draws out photographic detail and conveys, without undermining, Harry’s reductive process.

Business card designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Business card designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Headed paper designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Headed paper designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Headed paper designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts

“Developed as part of the Brighton Photo Fringe Festival, FINDS is an object to be redistributed across the city. The 32 page newspaper contains photographs from Harry Watt’s observations in Brighton during the months leading up to the event. Discarded objects often thought of as rubbish are collected and presented in FINDS as miniature, temporal sculptures.” – Birch

Print designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Print designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Print designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts

Harry Watts Studio “represents the culmination of three years work documenting photographic studios. Building upon Harry’s identity, the design of the STUDIO book illustrates the process of the photographer by making use of structured systems and plain, high quality materials.” – Birch

Print designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Print designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Print designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Print designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Print with surface emboss designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Website designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Website designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Website designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts Website designed by Birch for British photographer Harry Watts