MEET WALES’ INSTAGRAM STAR
A TEENAGER who snubbed university has found global fame for his surreal illustrations which started from his bedroom at his mum’s house.
When 19-year-old Harry Hambley finished college he decided to create his own business – Ketnipz – selling illustrations and clothing featuring a small character called “The Bean”.
Harry, from Llandaff, Cardiff, has since racked up an astonishing fanbase of more than 550,000 followers on Instagram, and spent time working in LA, Mexico, New York and London.
Just over a year ago Harry had around 100,000 Instagram followers. His popularity has since rocketed, but for Harry the focus is all on the work.
Harry said: “It’s been more travel, just more work. A bit more of everything really. I’m just busy, very busy.
“It’s hard to remember even where I was a year ago.
“It’s good to have a massive fanbase behind me with more followers, but I feel it’s very much the same as having 100,000 followers.
“It’s like it gets to a point where it’s numbers and it doesn’t really matter.
“My focus has always been about doing the work and making sure that it’s good and not focusing so much on figures. So just keeping at it.
“It’s a little surreal seeing people wearing my stuff. But I always hoped that that would happen and it’s nice to see it.”
Despite the huge success, Harry still does a large amount of work from his bedroom at his mum’s house.
One of Harry’s first big breaks was when he was approached by Instagram to create a sticker for their story feature.
The story feature allows users to post pictures that disappear after a certain amount of time and can be decorated with stickers, including Harry’s Bean character inside a love heart.
The sticker was part of a campaign promoting positivity on social media, something Harry and Ketnipz have maintained.
Harry said: “I think now it [the bean character] is becoming like seeing a friendly face or a friend. That’s something that’s rare on social media, it’s hard to get a connection like that.
“And I’ve met with people who’ve said it makes their day a little bit nicer and just chills them out. Especially in the whole headache of social media.” Although at first glance Harry’s designs could appear to be simple drawings, the work often contains important messages about mental health. Harry said: “I think it’s easy to be preachy about you need to look after yourself and all of this, but there’s also an importance in reminding people that they aren’t alone and that the designs are there to kind of put a mirror on things and the importance of acknowledging the small things which can trigger something.
“Working on the Instagram sticker definitely put me on that track.
“I think everyone has felt a certain kind of anxiety around social media. I don’t think that’s something which is rare anymore.
“And I think that as we progress it’s important to acknowledge that and keep that in mind moving forwards and if we don’t it’s only going to get worse.”
Harry is now working on expanding more in Europe and Singapore, where a large number of his fans are from, and moving towards more premium products.