About HAUS

A founder-led studio built for creative freedom and thoughtful work.

HAUS is an independent creative practice bringing together graphic design, photography and illustration through research, curiosity and a clear sense of purpose.

Gem Backhouse
Founder and Creative Director

The founder

Design led by curiosity, context and intention.

I’m Gem Backhouse, the founder and creative director of HAUS. I graduated with First Class Honours in Graphic Design, developing a practice that moves between design, photography and research.

My interests extend beyond design into society, culture, science and nature. Those wider perspectives help me look beneath the surface of a brief and understand the world the work will enter.

I care about creating work that is visually distinctive, but also thoughtful and appropriate. Beauty matters most when it carries an idea, creates meaning and helps something connect.

Why HAUS

A studio created to work with greater freedom and intention.

I founded HAUS to create beyond the boundaries of a single discipline. Design, image-making and research often strengthen one another, and the studio gives those different parts of my practice room to meet around one clear idea.

Working independently allows each project to receive close attention and direct creative involvement. It creates space to listen carefully, ask better questions and shape an approach around the real needs of the work.

HAUS is currently a founder-led practice, built with the long-term ambition of becoming a multidisciplinary global studio. The aim is to grow thoughtfully while protecting the curiosity, care and creative freedom on which it was founded.

What shapes the work

Curious by nature.
Considered by design.

Curiosity

Looking beyond the obvious to understand people, context, culture and possibility.

Intention

Making creative decisions for a reason, with clarity behind both idea and execution.

Evolution

Creating work with enough coherence to feel established and enough flexibility to grow.

Looking forward

Designed for what’s next.

HAUS is being built one considered project at a time, with the ambition to collaborate widely, explore new disciplines and create work capable of lasting beyond the moment it is made.

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What are you
building next?

Whether you are starting something new or giving an existing idea new direction, share the ambition or challenge behind it.