Paul Crawford, President/Creative Director
After a few years being a sub-par bass guitar player in a sub-par heavy metal band, Paul decided that advertising might be a better career choice. Since then, he’s logged 15 years of advertising, design and brand-building experience working at agencies like Arnold Worldwide in Boston, Huey/Paprocki in Atlanta and SlaughterHanson and Lewis Communications in Birmingham. He’s done work for brands such as Royal Caribbean International, The Hartford, US Postal Service, ING, CNN, Turner Classic Movies, Amsouth Bank, Protective Life, KinderCare Learning Centers, Mastercraft Boats, Honda Small Engines, Vanderbilt Medical Center and Prevent Child Abuse.
Paul has won just about every award given for advertising and design including The One Show, Communication Arts, Archive, Effies, The New York Festivals, Print Regional Design, MPA Kelly Awards, Hatch Awards, London International Advertising Show, US Ad Review and local, regional and national ADDYs. He has also had his work reviewed by the The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
In 2005 and 2006, the Birmingham Advertising Federation named Paul both Creative Director and Art Director of the Year. He was again named Art Director of the Year in 2008. In 2010 Paul was named Copywriter and Creative Director of the year.
Paul and his wife Emily have two children, Ian (10) and Natalie (8). When he’s not at Scout or chasing the kids around, you can find him at the CrossFit facility trying to shave a few seconds off his time.
Carly Jayne Rullman, Client Services Manager
Like many of us, Carly comes from outside Alabama. She grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia playing lacrosse and performing. She graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in Public Relations, though her knowledge goes beyond that particular field (you should hear her speak Spanish!)
Before joining us at Scout, Carly was a writer/editor for Platform Online Magazine and Account Executive for The Crimson White newspaper in Tuscaloosa. She also helped build the communications department at Walnut Hill School in Natick, Mass. and did marketing for UAB athletics.
Carly is an active member of Birmingham Rotaract where she is involved in a wide variety of projects, from service to socials. She is also a volunteer girls’ lacrosse coach, loves reading and blogging on Ad Age, as well as looking for any opportunities to continue performing (karaoke will do for now.) In 2010, Carly was named American Advertising Federation, Birmingham Account Executive of the Year.
Carly truly enjoys the day-to-day client service and is involved in almost every project at Scout. Anything a client needs, she will figure out how to take care of it.
Dan Gavin, Designer/Interactive
Dan hails from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He spent most of his childhood and high school years playing soccer and drawing.
After making a difficult life decision whether to play soccer for no one (he is actually an all state defender) or attend Pratt Institute, Dan was off to New York to explore design school and that famous NY pizza. Dan is a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY where he received a BFA in Graphic Design. After finishing school he continued working for a private label fashion company, until he relocated to Alabama.
Dan has spent the past year working on a project in Greensboro, AL called PieLab. PieLab was born out of a Project M session by a group of graphic designers and is founded on the idea that simple things, like delicious pie and good conversation, can bring us together and spread joy.
Dan loves interactive and exploring the possibilities of WordPress. His web skills include: Flash, xml, html, php, and MySQL. He also enjoys designing for print projects and is fascinated with newsprint. While not at Scout, Dan enjoys fixed gear bikes, short walks on the beach, and typography.
Kathryn Saunders Tanner, Designer
Kathryn grew up Birmingham, Alabama but went off to college at Auburn University. She graduated with a BFA in Auburn’s esteemed Graphic Design program. She was awarded gold and silver ADDYs for some of her design work during her final year.
Kathryn loves all aspects of design, whether it be a sensitivity to typography, logo design, publication design and more.
When she is not busy at Scout, she loves hanging out with her husband, Curt and boxer mix, Apollo and engaging in DIY projects. And when the deep South has had it’s run, or is at least bearable, she is a fan of the great outdoors—rock climbing, going to the lake and being with friends.
Karen Gathany, Designer
Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, Karen has been passionate about art and design since she was only a wee child. She even designed her own business cards in elementary school. Growing up around her parents’ photography studio helped inspire her appreciation for color, composition, and creativity.Jeremy Mitchell, Senior Designer/Interactive
Born and raised in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Jeremy grew up rubbing elbows with Country Music Stars such as Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell, Reba Macintyre, Conway Twitty and the long bearded guy from The Oak Ridge Boys. Well, Jeremy thought he was rubbing elbows with them because his mom would say, “Hi” to them at the grocery store and she knew their names and where they lived. When Jeremy saw them on T.V., he thought he was watching home movies of his friends.
After graduating from Western Kentucky University in 2001 with a Marketing Degree, Jeremy thought he wanted to pursued a career in sports marketing by working for the Senior PGA. Ultimately, he decided that sports marketing wasn’t for him. In the meantime, he started a band and played mostly Dave Matthews covers and some originals. It was in the process of marketing his band that he realized that he enjoyed designing his own posters and websites more than actually playing gigs.
Jeremy has several “side projects” that he is involved in. The most recent is BestAboutPages.com. It’s a showcase of the best about pages on the web. He and his wife started Gallerytopia.com in the fall of 2010. Gallerytopia is a service that offers mobile websites for photographers and designers. Jeremy keeps track of this favorite things on his inspiration blog at ForYourInspiration.com. Even Jeremy’s dog, Lucy, has her own website at LucySitGoodDog.com.
Jeremy works remote from Nashville, Tennessee. When he’s not working, he spends the rest of his time with his wife, daughter and Boston Terrier puppy. His skill set includes web design, front-end development, custom WordPress theming and video production. Some of his other skills include: playing a guitar and harmonica at the same time, spinning a basketball on all of his fingers (including his thumb) and whistling really loud.
Jon Williamson, Art Director
After a whirlwind tour through the South, Jon has finally made it back to his home state.
Jon grew up in Montgomery, AL before attending the University of Mississippi and earning a BFA degree in Set Design for Theatre. He then relocated from Oxford to Atlanta where he was a resident and freelance set designer for a number of theaters, as well as a technical director and a scenic artist.
After about the 70th show he worked on, Jon headed back to school for art direction in advertising. He recently completed the Texas Creative graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin where he won a number of student ad awards including a few Summit Awards, a national gold ADDY, and was a finalist in the One Show Student Pitch Competition. After graduation, Jon worked briefly as a junior art director at TKO Advertising in Austin before joining the Scout team.
Jon loves being an art director, and feels that his time in the theatre offers something unique in the ad world.
In his free time, Jon enjoys cheering on Ole Miss, making gallons of his homemade BBQ sauces, and listening to the Delta blues in and out of the Delta.