HOW WE EVOLVED
Today, Mot Juste is run by Peter Erftemeijer – one of its founders.
Trained as a graphic designer (art college in the Netherlands and London’s Hornsey College of Art), Peter stayed on in London working for various design companies – all involved in editorial design, where he designed books, produced various staff magazines and employee reports and created brand manuals.
Currently, Peter manages content for online and print publications on employer branding and talent attraction together with Mot Juste's long-term editor, John Ashworth.
Where it all started...
Mot Juste was formed in 1980, initially producing corporate and product brochures in different languages – European, Arabic and Japanese (as the name would suggest). Long-term projects for companies such as British-American Tobacco, Re-insurance brokers Greig Fester and Orbital Sound followed.
The company expanded into motor sport PR and managed Firestone’s production saloon car racing programme. In 1990, the PR division de-merged and Mot Juste continued with editorial design and contract publishing.
Mot Juste’s work evolved from writing and designing corporate literature to creating residents’ magazines for local authorities, to researching and writing HR handbooks and white papers on recruitment topics. More recently, we added book publishing with a range of titles on West African culture and current affairs.
In the early years we employed writers and designers. This gradually changed to working with freelance associates, due to the changed nature of the work and the way people want to work.
From our small West End studio, we moved to larger locations in Wandsworth, Balham, Brixton and West Norwood. Since 2011, the business was conducted from Peter’s home in Wapping and then in 2017, it moved to Canterbury.