Features

The Scoop with Ken Kirton

Transform sits down with Hato co-founder and creative director Ken Kirton to discuss his agency’s playful approach to design, why it fosters human-centred collaborations and the benefits of running a global creative studio.

Hato started life as a publishing house. How did you end up evolving into the business you are now with the additions of a design studio and a digital production house?

Jackson [Lam] and I have always been designers. We studied graphic design at St. Martin’s in London and were interested in exploring what design could be. Getting a printing press gave us an accessible production tool and opened up a way to experiment through that medium. Hato evolved from there, growing alongside our ambitions. What began as small collaborations with artists and galleries expanded into branding work for museums, shaping their values, missions and collaborations from the ground up.

Our perspective has always been rooted in the arts, with a strong focus on audience and community. That approach led us to work with brands like Delli, Simon Beckerman’s venture after Depop, where we explored how to build new communities and disrupt the market.

We’ve always been audience-centric, drawing on cultural references and our background with galleries and the printing press to inform our work. The digital aspect followed naturally — our approach to building a website is similar to how we’d make a book or develop a brand identity with motion systems. At the heart of it is play and production: staying curious, pushing boundaries early on and turning those insights into strategy. Rather than treating things like digital or motion as add-ons, we integrate them into the concept from the beginning.

Do you feel having those other branches in the business helps attract a different kind of creative to work at Hato?

Absolutely. For us, it's most important that individuals are curious and open to exploring — not just focused on one area. Our team tends to be multidisciplinary, with a strong interest in culture and how design impacts the wider community.

When we do need specialist skills, we’re fortunate to have access to a great network of freelancers and experts. That’s largely thanks to Hato Press being a recognisable, community-facing part of our brand, and it makes what we do more visible and accessible. As a result, we’re able to bring in specialists across a range of areas, from type design and tone of voice to photography, and across sectors like hospitality and fashion.

I understand it’s important at Hato to have an ‘experimental approach to communicating ideas.’ How is that theme leveraged in your brand design work?

I’d say we have quite a niche approach to what we do. Even the clients we attract tend to understand that they’re stepping into a different kind of process — one that’s more exploratory. Their aspirations often go beyond just evolving within their industry; they want to push boundaries more broadly.

Take Capture One, for example. It’s a very technical photography platform, but our strategy with them was to move beyond being just a tool and reposition them as a platform for photographers. That kind of shift is part of a shared transformation journey we often go on with clients.

Experimentation is a key part of that. Our clients usually come in knowing we don’t follow a set template; everything is crafted collaboratively. There’s a lot of trust in how we work and a willingness to embrace the unexpected, allowing space for serendipity and play, especially in digital work.

One example is the D&AD Festival project from a while back. We created a 3D digital drawing tool that let anyone contribute visual marks. Those drawings were then used across the campaign’s out-of-home ads. The tool even recorded how each mark was made, allowing us to turn them into bold animations for high-end moments like award ceremony idents. It was a great example of participatory design where we brought the community into the creative process and let them shape the brand experience.

So overall, it’s a deeply collaborative, trust-based journey where experimentation plays a central role.

Playfulness is a recurring theme in your work. What role does play have in effective branding, and do you find it challenging to communicate its efficacy to clients?

One of the difficulties is helping clients understand that if you’re doing something different, it might not land immediately. It can take time to digest — but that’s part of the journey, and it really comes down to trust.

Even with large organisations, we often work directly with founders or key decision-makers. At the end of the day, it’s about human relationships. No matter the scale of the client, there are always individuals behind the project. That’s a core part of our practice — we keep communication close and informal, often using WhatsApp to check in. We try to strip away unnecessary formalities and focus on working with people, not just institutions.

Our process is very human-centred. It’s about meeting in the middle and building something together.

You have studios in both London and Hong Kong. How do you maintain a cohesive studio culture while navigating the practical and cultural differences between those two bases?

The Hong Kong studio is a smaller setup, mainly focused on digital experiences and exhibition design within the arts sector. Jackson and I co-founded the business after studying together, so there’s a deep foundation of trust and collaboration.

Even when we're in different locations, there's an unspoken understanding between us. We may take slightly different paths, but we always arrive at the same outcome. The small differences in execution don’t really affect the end result. It works because we share the same values and vision as directors.

On larger branding projects, we often collaborate across time zones. With teams in both London and Hong Kong, we can effectively deliver 16 to 20 hours of progress within a single day, which is a huge advantage. But for most day-to-day work, each studio operates fairly autonomously, with regular weekly or bi-weekly check-ins to stay aligned.

Is there any uncharted territory Hato hasn’t yet explored but would love to?

We’re really interested in working in regions like the Middle East and the Southeast Asia — especially within the cultural sector, where there’s a lot of growth and momentum. Our experience in Hong Kong, where we helped broaden the arts and culture landscape, could translate well into those contexts.

At the same time, we're keen to collaborate with brands that are integrating digital in meaningful ways and looking to build new forms of community engagement. That could be across sports, lifestyle, apps or start-ups — any space where there’s a desire to do things differently.

Ultimately, we’re drawn to projects that challenge the homogeneity we often see in branding today. We want to work with people and organisations who are committed to creating more proactive, culturally rich communities.