Meet the team

Back in the 1990s, Mighty Manuwatu mates Steve (Steveo) Turner and Alastair (Al) Wilson hatched a plan to start their own design consultancy ‘one day’. After sharing a pint of light ale or three, they even came up with the perfect name for their venture: Toast! In 2001, the real Toast was born, and we’ve been crunching on all crusts ever since.

Steve Turner

With a Mac called Marmalade, Toast Director Steve (Steveo) Turner may seem like a bitter-sweet guy, but he says nothing quite beats a tangy vegemite-cheese toastie to start each day.

Steve started his design career 17 years ago – back in the good old paste-ups and pre-Photoshop days. Turning visions into actual concepts is Steve’s second nature, plus he’s notorious for his quirky illustrations and managerial talents.

After hours, you’re most likely to find this Kiwi bloke playing Mr Fix It around his house, painting (walls and canvases), getting hot-headed over the footie or roaming the bush with his Australian Kelpey in tow.

Alastair Wilson "Burn it up!"

Toast co-frontman Alastair (Al) Wilson’s hard-drive tends to melt when addressed as Margarine. No offense, ‘Marge’, but Al has a real soft spot for toast with a smidgin of Marmite, a pinch of salt and heaps of pepper.

Al has 20 years of graphic design experience under his belt and is the Bread-bin’s official IT problem solver. He keeps fit by stacking the beer fridge, operating the coffee machine, and chasing around after his son Max. Al spends every other waking moment fiddling around with his Apple Mac solving Broadband riddles.

Justin Waddell

Justin (Bazza) Waddell has been with Toast for four years and with an HD called Peanut Butter, he could be considered the nutty one of the bunch. In addition, he’s a web whizz, both on the design and techno front, and has an eagle eye for detail.

Justin has a weird penchant for remembering obscure bits of trivia, and for indulging in hard-out activities like snowboarding, mountain biking and Shaolin Kempo (having a First Degree Black Belt in the latter is the only reasons his work mates never rub him up the wrong away).

Lydia Jackson

Lydia Jackson is the latest add-on to Team Toast. Making the move north from Taranaki, Lydia completed a Bachelor of Graphic design and a Diploma in Digital Media with the game plan of being able to convert design into functional websites. That is how she found a spot on the web side of Toast.

Although she grew up in the Naki, Lydia’s pretty fond of the Auckland scene and when she’s not cooking up designs and code, she can be found out and about taking a roll or two of photographs and checking out the Café scene.

Milco Serafimovski

Macedonian-born Milco (Milcho in Kiwi speak) Serafimovski is an architect who switched to graphics 18 years ago and brings a unique balance of creative and technical expertise to the table. Like his fellow ‘jaffles’, Milco’s a master at transforming clients’ messages into visual communications. Why Milco HD christened his HD Vegemite is a mystery, especially since its owner-operator has by far prefers French toast with white cheese.

When Milco isn’t doting on his wife Marina, taking on the challenge of parenting (and spoiling rotten) their two youngsters, he enjoys putting paint to canvas, smashing around a tennis ball and just living life Kiwi style.

Nicola Fountain

Nicola (Nic) Fountain is the only chick among the Toast roost. She grew up on a honey farm in Warkworth which landed her (and her computer) the nickname of ‘Honey’ – no wonder she ended up in the Bread-bin after migrating to Auckland and studying computer graphics.

Just because she’s a young gal who grew up amidst trees doesn’t mean Nic is green behind the ears. In fact, she’s quite adapt at racking up magazine layouts, and finishing them off with some funky typographical touches. Come summer, nothing ruffles this girl’s feathers more than enjoying the great outdoors with nothing but a tent over her head.

Bear

The Bread-bin simply wouldn’t be the same without Bear the mutt. In fact, the eight-year-old neutered ‘son of Steve’ has a host of crucial tasks to fulfill: strip-sniffing clients, hoovering up leftover Toast crumbs and getting Nic up at 20-minute intervals to open the back door.