For two years, I compiled and edited an informal fortnightly company newsletter for Saville Audio Visual. It comprised features on events and installations, company goals and achievements, and an interview with a member of staff, “60 seconds with…”. One week, when everyone more important than me was too busy to do it, they asked me.
James Everard, our Senior Designer in the York studio and the man behind designing SavWorld…
First up James, when did you start at Saville?
I joined along with Don Andrew in 2003. We’d been working at DTW, a design agency in Guisborough who did all of Saville’s design and online work at the time. A department was then set up in-house at head office in York.
Can you tell us a bit about your role?
Myself and Lou Mothersdale are the designers at Head Office, so we end up doing a bit of everything. Brochures, interactive PDF forms, email campaigns, website updates, ads and leaflets, datasheets, not to mention the weekly treat of designing the SavWorld newsletter! It’s done on Dotmailer and Lou did the first few, but once we realised any old idiot could do it, it was given to me! I also put together the biannual AVM catalogue along with Karen O’Mahoney and James Hensman. Lately, I’ve been working on Saville’s first mobile app, but there might be more details of that in a future SavWorld edition!
Need we ask, do you have a typical day?
Working on any or all of the above, drinking herbal tea, taking my shoes off (a liberating practice introduced by Fraser into a previously shoe-bound studio), and trying unsuccessfully to beat my brother Phil to any buffet leftovers after meetings! I’m also occasionally guilty of stinking out the upstairs kitchen by microwaving curries and vegetables – sorry Head Office!
How can the rest of Saville tap into your expertise?
I’m pretty nifty at cutting up and mounting artwork from my years at art college, and I enjoy copywriting – my colleague Jodie calls me ‘the talking dictionary’! My manager Gareth calls me Sherlock, though this might be his way of sugar-coating various requests to dig out 10 year old boardroom pics and projector manuals! I also enjoy problem solving and coming up with quirky advertising ideas
What hobbies do you have, and can you give us an interesting fact about yourself?
I do stand-up comedy, and earned a five-star review for my last show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As for an interesting fact, I used to amuse people with my date of birth, which is 5.6.78, until multi-talentless line-dancing disgrace Steps released a song by the same name in 1998. Tragedy!
“60 seconds with James Everard – the best SavWorld article so far – well done!”
Andy Dyson, Joint Managing Director, Saville Group
J Everard Design 