About us

We’re a tight-knit team of specialists in strategy, content, design, and website development. For more than 20 years we’ve been partnering with charities, foundations, and organisations working in education and health.

What we do

Research

Research

Good solutions start with the right questions. We take the time to understand your organisation, your audiences and the challenges you face. Through a trauma-informed research process, we uncover insights that shape accessible, user-centred digital and brand experiences.

Services

  • User research
  • Usability and content testing research
  • Focus groups
  • Analytics reviews
  • Content audits
  • Digital-marketing reviews
Strategy

Strategy

We help you bring your strategy to life, translating it into a refreshed brand, refined messaging or digital transformation that matches your audience needs to your vision.

Services

  • Digital strategy
  • Digital-transformation programmes
  • Team operating model and structure design
  • Brand positioning
  • Content strategy
  • Campaign strategy
  • Digital-marketing strategy
  • User journeys and content maps
Design and development

Design and development

We design and build brand and digital experiences that connect people with your cause. Everything we create is accessible, user-friendly and bespoke to your needs.

Services

  • Website design and development
  • Visual and brand identity
  • Campaign design and production
  • Marketing and fundraising design and print
  • Content and copy
Community, skills and support

Community, skills and support

Our work doesn’t stop at launch. We provide long-term support, training, and continuous improvements to ensure your digital platforms and services remain effective, secure, and scalable. We can also help your team build confidence and resilience in a fast-changing digital world. We provide ongoing strategy check-ins and opportunities to connect your team with our network of peers and practitioners through regular events and workshops.

Services

  • Setting up and coaching communities of practice
  • Ongoing iteration and optimisation
  • Future proofing technical support and maintenance
  • Upskilling, coaching, training and capacity-building for teams
  • Operating model and team structure design
  • Leadership coaching and mentoring
  • Away day facilitation

How we work

While our team are experts in working with content, code and creativity, our main focus is working with people. We have designed our project processes to enable collaboration and curiosity, build trust and co-create solutions.

Working with internal teams and external audiences alike, we make sure everyone is heard, respected and their perspectives are valued. We do this not just because it creates a more enjoyable working environment for everyone, but because it genuinely creates better results.

How we work

William Joseph were an exceptional agency to work with from beginning to end. They added such expertise and calm to the project which resulted in a website and brand we are proud of.

Olivia Smith, Head of Communications, Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Our team

We’re a focused team by design. We’ve built a group of experts that’s large enough to deliver complex projects, and close enough to maintain the trust that great work requires. Many of us have worked together for more than a decade, and the majority of the team for more than five years.

Everyone you meet will remain involved throughout. There’s no hand-offs, no salespeople or hidden layers of management, no rigid terms, no distant shareholders influencing decisions. We wouldn’t want it any other way.

Core team

  • Yasmin Georgiou
    Strategy Lead

    Yasmin’s experience spans charities, NHS and social enterprise. She has led ambitious digital engagement programmes and is passionate about bringing people together on strategy development and delivery. She was Head of Digital Engagement at GOSH and has also worked at Action for Children, Youth Sport Trust, Cafedirect and Islamic Relief Worldwide. Yasmin is one of the founders and hosts of Charity Book Club.
    Blog posts by Yas

  • James Gadsby Peet
    Director of Digital & Strategy

    James leads digital and strategic thinking at William Joseph, helping charities, universities and public institutions design more accessible, equitable, and impactful services. He combines deep experience in user-centred design with a passion for practical change, making sure the work we do genuinely improves lives, especially for people often left out of the conversation.
    Blog posts by James

  • Ellie McCarthy
    Product Management & Client Relationships Lead

    Ellie has worked across the third sector, leading digital transformation and digital products at some of the most respected charities in the UK, including Cancer Research UK, Kids and the Royal Institute of British Architects. Ellie has a valuable mix of knowledge: from best-in-class digital techniques to the delivery of large scale change programmes which help organisations realise their potential digitally.
    Blog posts by Ellie

  • Lori Hosseinbucus
    Developer

    Lori is passionate about creating websites that are accessible and easy to use. She started her career working in-house at a training provider, where she was responsible for building their first website. Lori then moved on to an agency where she designed and built websites, and began to specialise in front-end development. Lori also volunteers as an instructor on coding courses for beginners to help under-represented people get involved in tech.
    Blog posts by Lori

  • Jonny Kates
    Technical Lead

    Prior to joining William Joseph, Jonny helped build one of the UK’s largest charity website and fundraising platforms; developing a design framework to build hundreds of websites quickly at scale. Jonny is a diverse developer with 10 years experience who enjoys getting stuck into the detail of complex challenges. He’s passionate about creating impact through technology, building an accessible web for everyone, and user centred design.

  • Nicola O’Connor
    UX & Content Strategy Manager

    During her time as Content Strategy Lead at Cancer Research UK, Nic made the case for and drove the Masthead Information Architecture (MIA) project. This formed the very basis of CRUK’s digital transformation. It was the project which led CRUK to adopt a hub and spoke model in order to drive digital maturity through the whole charity. More recently she’s honed her content strategy practice at Autistica across their website, research network and mobile app. She’s adept at working with senior stakeholders to generate buy-in and excitement.
    Blog posts by Nic

  • Rania Nur
    Product Manager

    Rania is driven by curiosity, collaboration and the desire to do good. Her interest in user behaviour, data analysis and worthy causes has placed her as a student consultant at Queen Mary University, a Trustee at the Museum of the Home, and a Director on the board of social enterprise, Collaborative Future.

  • Alice Richmond
    Delivery Lead

    Alice has over 10 years experience as an agile leader, working with both private and public sector organisations. With prior experience as a developer she blends both the technical and experience worlds. Alice graduated with a degree in neuroscience and has a special interest in user experience and research encouraging organisations to take a human centric, accessible approach to software development. She has led projects for Kew, The Cabinet Office, Wellcome Collection and GDS.
    Blog posts by Alice

  • Lucy Pickering
    UX & Content Strategist

    Lucy has varied digital experience, having worked with charities and local government, as well as in the arts and travel sectors. She joined the team after managing the website UX for the UK’s fastest-growing software company. Lucy has evolved our user research and testing processes in a way that is robust, inclusive and trauma-informed.
    Blog posts by Lucy

  • Daniel Cullinan
    Senior Designer

    With a background in information design and branding, Dan now applies the same rigorous principles of typography, structure and layout to digital work. He is passionate about inclusive design and web accessibility, with a keen interest in type design and its impact on how people read.

  • Ed Risbey
    Creative Strategist

    Ed links up the strategy and design in our brand and digital projects. His 15 years experience as a designer has led to a deep understanding of what makes a brand successful for audiences and organisations alike. He has worked with clients including Cancer Research UK, National Trust, NSPCC, Trees for Cities and WWF and his work has been recognised by D&AD, DBA and the RCA’s Inclusive Design Centre.
    Blog posts by Ed

  • Benjamin Strachan
    Senior Designer

    Benjamin believes in questioning convention and strives to design with both reasoning and feeling. He has over ten years of experience working with a broad variety of clients over digital and print. A highlight includes working on a project aimed at education and improvement of waste management in India. He loves working with type and the challenge of creating a design that communicates its message effectively.

  • Mani Bae
    Developer

    Mani has over 10 years of graphic design experience, working with a range of clients including Samsung and Sony. He switched to web development a few years back, and is now fully committed producing digital products with elaborate visual components. He enjoys applying his graphic design expertise to enhancing user experience.

  • Ewan Main
    Product Management Lead

    Ewan was originally a youth worker - he developed and ran online support services for young and adult carers at Carers Trust, and then oversaw several workplace mental health websites at Mind, the UK’s biggest mental health charity. He’s interested in anything that lowers barriers to participation in society and services, and in particular, in looking at culture, power dynamics and whose narratives are being focused on or overlooked.
    Blog posts by Ewan

  • Chris Hammond
    Managing Director & Co-Founder

    Chris has worked in the advertising and design industry for over 30 years. He started his career at Saatchi & Saatchi moving to multi-discipline agency Imagination. He has worked on branding and digital projects for clients such as University of Oxford, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Cancer Research UK and Sainsbury’s Trust as well as our own digital products. Chris heads up the account side of the company and is a founding partner of William Joseph.
    Blog posts by Chris

  • Nikki Gatenby
    Non-Executive Director

    Having led successful agencies in London, Paris and Brighton, with a track record of supercharging growth, Nikki published ‘Superengaged – how to transform business performance by putting people and purpose first’ in 2018. Nikki is now working with William Joseph as she’s passionate about making good agencies great.

Remembering Stéph

Stéphane Harrison co-founded William Joseph in 2005 with Chris. They wanted to build an agency that used design to do something meaningful – not just sell more stuff.

Stéph died in September 2025, aged 51, after treatment for cancer. We miss him every day.

He was thoughtful, funny and quietly radical. He helped build a place where curiosity was safe, rigour was expected, and people came before the process. If you’ve worked with us, seen anything we’ve created or met any of our team, you know his influence.

To honour him, we’re creating a book of his doodles and recipes to raise funds for Cancer Research UK.

He helped shape who we are and how we work, in ways that will last for ever.

Remembering Stéph

Associates

  • Joe Davis
    Senior Developer

    Joe originally trained as a graphic designer. For over a decade he has been building apps, websites and prototypes for clients including ABRSM, KTN, Croydon Council, and Harvard University Press, often as lead developer. He has also taught programming to illustration students at Central Saint Martins. His design background, combined with long-term programming experience and an understanding of web technologies enable him to manage complex web projects and apps through every stage of the development process.

  • Mel Ezechukwu
    Digital Strategist

    Mel is a strategist whose 15 year-long career spans charity, non-profit, commercial and agency sectors. Her strong background leading on large-scale digital projects and developing products and services, has equipped her with a range of experience in many areas, including customer experience, digital marketing, website development, user journey mapping and content strategy. She is passionate about helping organisations to focus on what matters to their users, and designing experiences that are intuitive and accessible.

  • Carmen Barlow
    Digital Mobilisation & Transformation Strategy Consultant

    Carmen is a transformation strategist who helps modernise causes to become more resilient, through holistic organisational change. She has worked with charities including Plan International UK, Refuge, Marie Curie and Amnesty International UK to set strategic goals, develop organisational roadmaps and measurement frameworks, and build effective teams. Combining design thinking and agile methodologies, Carmen brings clarity to complex challenges across people, processes and tools. Her data-led, user-centred approach has a proven track record of delivering meaningful social impact—driving attitudinal change, increasing fundraising success and influencing policy.

  • Gareth Ellis-Thomas
    Transformation Consultant

    Gareth is a digital transformation consultant, working with charities, nonprofits and local authorities to help them keep pace with the expectations of those who need and support them. His work is about designing ways for people, technology and organisations to have a greater impact in society. For over a decade, he led digital and transformation at leading health charity Prostate Cancer UK as Director of Transformation & Technology and Head of Digital before that. During that time he led the strategies, people and projects that changed the way digital technologies and ways of working delivered more impact for service users, mobilised a nation behind a cause, raised more income and created more efficiency for the charity.

Our values

As a certified B Corp, we are legally bound to consider people, planet and profit when making decisions. We only work with organisations creating a positive impact in the world, which for us are most often charities, foundations, education, and health organisations.

Explore our impact
Our values

Who we work with

  • Action For Children
  • ActionAid
  • Ada Lovelace Institute
  • Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex
  • Alan Turing Institute
  • Alzheimer’s Research UK
  • Ashden
  • Ashmolean Museum
  • Association for Laboratory Medicine
  • Autistica
  • Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
  • Bioregional
  • Blue Cross
  • BookTrust
  • Breast Cancer Care
  • Brighton and Sussex Medical School
  • British Paediatric Neurology Association
  • British Society for Rheumatology
  • Cancer Research UK
  • Centre for Progressive Policy
  • Charity Digital
  • Chartered Institute of Fundraising
  • Christians Against Poverty
  • City Bridge Foundation
  • City of Edinburgh Council
  • City of London
  • Communitas Clinics
  • Crohn’s and Colitis UK
  • Diabetes UK
  • DivestInvest
  • Drinkaware
  • Ethical Trade Initiative
  • Genio
  • Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector
  • GRAIL
  • Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity
  • Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity
  • Help Musicians
  • King’s College London
  • Lawn Tennis Association
  • LEF
  • Local Trust
  • Locality
  • London’s Air Ambulance
  • Media Trust
  • Mental Health Foundation
  • Met Office
  • Mind
  • Moorfields Eye Charity
  • NCVO
  • NHS
  • NHS Confederation
  • NHS Providers
  • NHS South East London CCG
  • NSPCC
  • Nuffield Foundation
  • One World Action
  • Parentkind
  • Paul Hamlyn Foundation
  • Porchlight
  • Prostate Cancer UK
  • Royal College of Ophthalmologists
  • Royal Free Charity
  • Royal Marsden Cancer Charity
  • Royal Society for Blind Children
  • RSA
  • RSPCA
  • Sense
  • Social Finance
  • Starlight
  • Student Minds
  • The Access to Justice Foundation
  • The Difference
  • The Film and TV Charity
  • The Health Foundation
  • The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity
  • Thrive
  • Train Timer
  • Trees for Cities
  • UK Council for Graduate Education
  • UK Youth
  • University of Brighton
  • University of Exeter
  • University of Oxford
  • University of Sussex
  • Variety
  • VoiceAbility
  • Westminster City Council