Judy Kuszewski
Founding Partner
When we set out to create Evermore, we wanted our name and identity to say something meaningful about the ideas that inspire us and that inform our relationships with our clients. We wanted to tell a story about yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Our storyteller is the raven.
We didn’t choose the raven to represent us because of its beauty, though it is undeniably beautiful; rather, we chose it for what it represents across cultures and time – and for how that meaning contrasts with the conventional corporate template.
Ravens, along with other corvids, such as crows, jackdaws, magpies, and choughs, are among the most intelligent creatures on earth. They plan; they remember. They solve problems that other animals cannot. They have been observed in studious analysis, joyful play, and cunning deception – that is, they are capable of complex behaviour that speaks of serious engagement with the world. They are not symbols of innocence, like doves, nor of apex-predatory might, like eagles. They are symbols of intelligence operating in a complex world.
The raven is also culturally resonant, although not always flatteringly – their habit of hanging around battlefields and the aftermath of predation means their reputation as a portent of death is perhaps inevitable. Edgar Allan Poe made the association immortal: a black raven arriving uninvited, settling permanently, and responding to every desperate question with the same single word: Nevermore.
In many traditions, the raven is a messenger – it travels between worlds, carrying knowledge from one place to another, serving as guide and interpreter. In others, it is a guardian: the creature that watches from high above, sees what’s coming, and sounds the warning call. In Norse tradition, Odin’s ravens Huginn and Muninn – mind and memory – fly out each day to observe the world and return to report what they find. Their gift is that of truth.
That is the kind of counsel Evermore aspires to offer. The stories we tell are not the naive reassurance that everything is fine, nor the polished narrative that makes difficulty look like progress. Rather, we offer an honest, clear-eyed, intelligent account of our clients’ reality, what it means, and how they can act – delivered with respect and responsibility.
One more thing about ravens worth saying: they are long-lived. They form lasting bonds. They do not abandon the places and the communities they are part of. In a field where so much advisory work is transactional – where the project ends and everyone moves on – Evermore is built around a different kind of presence. We offer a relationship that endures; that cultivates knowledge, memory, and trust over time – a relationship that delivers more, not less, the longer it has endured.
Get in touch – let us help you write your own story.