When Richard Wood, associate graphic design director at Bovis Homes, first joined the company in 1992, he had a ponytail and rode a Kawasaki Z650 motorbike to work. A quarter of a century later, much of the hair has gone, but the team has definitely grown.

Richard said: "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.

"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.

"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 people, made up of artworkers, designers, 3D visualisers and administrators.

The team now carries out 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 milestone, Richard, a stickler for good proofreading and layout, was presented with a spoof certificate littered with mistakes.

"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. The success of the department has been down to the long-term commitment from many of my staff, both past and present. I simply couldn't have done it without them."