Events

Richard celebrates his silver anniversary

- 14 Sep 17

Graphics guru Richard Wood, is celebrating 25 years at Bovis Homes!
Executive Director Keith Carnegie (left) presents Richard with his certificate

When the Associate Graphic Design Director first joined the company in 1992, he had a ponytail and rode a Kawasaki Z650 motorbike to work at the then South West region's offices on Lansdown Road in Cheltenham. A quarter of a century later, much of the hair has gone, but the team has definitely grown.

"When I first started at Bovis Homes, we were in the basement of our old offices in Cheltenham. We had two Apple Macs - which had only just been released - and the team consisted of just three people," Richard explains.

"We were only working with the South West region back then, and most of our work was print brochures and leaflet drops - much of which was designed by hand," says Richard.

"When I first started, my plan was just to make it past Christmas having been made redundant from my previous job, but all these years later, I'm still here!"

Richard, who originally trained as an illustrator, moved with the Company to the current offices in Bishop's Cleeve in 1999, where he grew the in-house Graphics department to a total of 10; made up of artworkers, designers, 3D visualisers and administrators.

The team now undertakes work for all the Company's seven operating regions, including brochures and leaflet drops but also, as technology has progressed, designing websites, email campaigns, advertising, information centres, report and accounts, preparing materials for public consultations and staff publications.

To celebrate his achievement, Richard, a stickler for good proofreading and layout, was presented with a spoof certificate littered with mistakes to commemorate the milestone.

"It doesn't feel like 25 years, but we've certainly come a long way in that time. I know I can be grumpy sometimes, but the reason I'm still here is because I enjoy it," he said.

"I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone that's been part of those years - and acknowledge that the success of the department has been down to the long-term commitment from many of my staff, both past and present. We have real history and I simply couldn't have done it without them."