Richard Perry
Founder, Designer & Janitor
Akira Media Designs
Richard Perry is the driving force behind Akira Media Designs, and by that, we mean the only employee. He began refining his professional design skills at WWAY here in Wilmington where he started out as a lowly intern and worked his way up to Production Manager.
“Local television is a great place to start out, especially in the smaller markets where you have more of a chance to learn new things. If a graphic or opening needed to be built, you just hopped in there and did it.”
During his time at WWAY, Richard began to watch and learn about marketing principals as he continued to develop his natural design skills. He left WWAY in 2001 to produce videos for DeCarol Williamson Enterprises, but later that same year, his dream job came calling.
“I saw that there was an opening at WRAL for a director and that was where I had always wanted to work while I was in TV. I applied and got the job and it was everything that I dreamed it would be. I took a bit of pride in working there because it meant that I could run with the big dogs and keep up. Local broadcasting doesn’t get any better than WRAL and I’m glad to say that I could work there.”
In 2004, a new opportunity came up to return to Wilmington to work in Web Design and Richard jumped at it. However, things didn’t go so smoothly as he had planned.
“I met with the owner, who was also a good friend, over lunch two weeks before I was to start and he told me that he was going to shut down his web design division. Naturally, the first thing I did was organize an immediate panic attack.”
He worked for the company for two months, organizing the closing of the division and making sure all remaining projects were completed before the development department was shut down.. It was a crash course in web development, but he learned a lot in the process.
In May of the same year, seeing his need for some sort of income and web design tailored for small business, Richard began Akira Media Designs.
“Necessity really is the mother of invention, or at least improvisation. I’ve always loved the design aspect of the work I’ve done in the past and the internet has really given me the chance to personally put those skills to work for people who need them. The thing I enjoy the most is the feeling that I’m helping people out by doing something for them that they can’t do themselves. I’m glad that things have worked out the way they have. I’m not sure that I would want them any other way.”