By Tom Webb, CEO  

In our ‘get to know’ blog series, I’m posing a few questions to the Element team.  Next up, we have our creative mastermind Jevanka Nunes Evertse, Design Executive.

What’s your background?

I’m originally from South Africa and this is where I started my journey as a creative. Not to get all nostalgic, but I remember the day I wanted to become a designer like it was yesterday. I was around 8 or 9 years old, and my school was having an Alice In Wonderland play. I was sitting at the computer playing on MS paint and clipart (as 8-year-olds do), and I found a picture of an English Bulldog with glasses reading a book. I took the picture and put a heading on top saying “Our cars are so great even dogs are reading about them” (my parents owned a car dealership at the time). I proudly printed my advert and showed my parents – it was published in the Alice In Wonderland brochure (thank you to my parents for always rooting for my artistic side).

I hopped across the pond to study Graphic Design at Kingston University, where I got to explore design in its entirety before narrowing down my interests to the field of social and visual identity design. During this time, and throughout my practice, I have capitalised on my various experiences to inform my design work. After graduating in 2023, I gained valuable experience at a female-owned branding studio where I worked alongside the founder for three months. I also spent some time at a design agency that specialised in going against convention; this is where I also got a taste for agency life.

So then I found myself at Element, enticed by the idea of entering a sector that I hadn’t considered before, and excited by the creativity that waited ahead. It’s great to be working with such a diverse team and portfolio of clients that are open to the idea of design as an added communication method.

How would you describe your job?

Creative, thought provoking, evolutionary and exciting!

From whitepapers and social posts to website revamps and new visual identities, my job is to apply design as another layer to aid our clients’ communications strategies. I also get to learn something new every day, and I’m grateful to be part of a team that actively pushes for greater creativity as it gives me the platform for constant professional growth.

Tell us about a memorable career moment.

I don’t have a singular memorable moment, simply because I’ve had the opportunity to do loads of cool things (not to toot my own horn). Something that never gets old however is the look on peoples’ faces when they first see a design. I have the privilege of bringing ideas and assets to life. It’s memorable for me because it’s a memorable moment for them.

How does design contribute to ‘Authentic Communication’?

Rather than ramble about ways that design can contribute, I’ll give you some examples of how it already has contributed instead.

Research reports

Hours have been spent curating this 30 page long asset in the format of an A4 document. When you publish this piece, you want your audience to care as much as you do. This is where design adds value, by altering the audience’s interaction with your piece, through imagery, icons, graphics – your audience not only reads but engages. Design transforms how you communicate.

Social media assets

You have an important product launch, event or news, but in the endless sea of social posts where everything is trying to grab your attention, how do you stand out?

The answer = good design.

You use design to your advantage to reel audience members in.

Newsletters

As a company you want to make sure that you’re always engaging with your customers. You could send them standard emails, but you risk emails getting lost in the sea of inbound communications. Design can serve as a call to action – it has to ability to say, ‘read me’ without actually saying ‘read me’. It shows that you value communication with your customers as you’re taking the time to craft something tailored to them.

What would you say to people pursuing a career in PR/design?

At the risk of sounding cheesy, nobody really chooses to become a designer; it’s more like a calling you get. For me, it was the moment I made an advert (full transparency, I didn’t know it was an advert at the age of 8 – I was just intrigued by use of pictures and text).

But my advice to anyone looking at pursing design, specifically within PR for startups and scaleups, is this: don’t just jump in, canon ball in.

This space has so much creative potential that isn’t always immediately recognised. The start-up space is full of businesses that genuinely value creativity because they care. They’re open to different creative approaches because they understand they need to set themselves apart. Every day is different, so you frequently get the opportunity to learn new things which I believe can inform different ways of creative thinking and even tap into unexplored areas.

What are you known for in your team?  

I’d like to think I’m known for my work ethic and determination. Our latest summer social at The Cube gave my team early insight into this. The memory of me hurling myself across the room to catch the last foam block (all part of the challenge) before slamming into the floor, won’t leave their minds anytime soon. We may not have won the challenge, but at least the team knows I’ll never drop the ball (or blocks).

Connect with Jev on LinkedIn here