DON SHALVEY
Former Chief Executive Officer, San Joaquin A+
Former Deputy Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
I have worked closely with James since 2012, and have been extremely impressed with his innate creative and visual talents since day one. In particular, his audiovisual presentation skills are truly second to none. He has a natural ability to take a vague idea or concept, fully visualize it, and turn it into a relevant, engaging, entertaining work of art – with a healthy dose of humor, when appropriate.
As a true music aficionado, James always manages to find just the right instantly-recognizable song, with lyrics that fit the topic of the slide and the presentation as a whole. As an experienced musician, he also possesses the unique technical skills required to create perfectly edited and faded song clips for use in presentations.
As a former English teacher and lifelong writer, James is also highly skilled in written communications, which is why for so many years I’ve entrusted him to transcribe, compose, edit and polish my letters and emails to hundreds of valued colleagues and partners throughout my national network. While always maintaining my personal style and voice, James has such a keen eye for structure, spelling, grammar, spacing and word choice that he inevitably makes my communications clearer, cleaner and more succinct, which is invaluable when so much of my work depends upon networking and interpersonal communications.
In short, James Parr has a natural gift for all forms of written and visual communications, combined with years of firsthand experience in the nonprofit sector, and I’m confident he’ll be of inestimable value to indivuals and organizations who elect to utilize his unique skillset.
ELISE DARWISH
Chief Executive Officer
Ensemble Learning
James did an incredible job on our document, a crucially important set of recommendations for placing an excellent teacher in every classroom in Stockton California. Starting with a raw draft document, he used his advanced skills in editing, graphic design and general aesthetics in turning it into an incredibly polished, professional-looking final report!
He also used his design skills to create a logo for our organization (the Exceed The Need Task Force) from scratch, which we’ll now be able to use in other communications.
We’re so appreciative of James’ expertise and assistance, and recommend him to others without hesitation!
ADAM PORSCH
Chief Strategy & Financial Officer
Amira Learning
JP Design was tremendously helpful to Amira Learning in quickly creating and adapting PowerPoint slides for our important presentation at the 2019 SXSW EDU Conference in Austin, Texas. In creating a stylish, visually engaging slideshow, James was flexible to our needs and adaptable to our timelines, working on a tight deadline but also in bits and pieces as new information came in. His video editing skills were particularly impressive and useful, taking our detailed clip length requests and turning them into the polished finished product we needed.
As a former colleague of James’ at the Gates Foundation, I know him to be a highly focused and creative problem solver, and recommend him without reservations to individuals and organizations looking to enhance and broaden their communications.
CARLO FRANZBLAU
Founder
TUNE Into READING
JP Design has provided invaluable assistance to us in two areas: PowerPoint design & impact, and document editing & aesthetics. In both cases, the communications that James worked on were crucial vehicles for conveying the mission and purpose of Tune Into Reading / Sing Out And Read.
While working to raise awareness of our product and locate investors, our message and communications matter a great deal – so we wanted a truly creative and professional set of eyes looking over our overview slides and executive summary, and this is precisely what we got with James! He seamlessly integrated his own ideas with our specific requirements and guidelines to create a much more visually appealing, highly polished pair of documents than what we started with. In short, James added clarity and impact to our messaging.
We look forward to working with JP Design again in the future, and encourage others to benefit from their valuable services as well.
JP Design Communications 