Rich Picture delivered to a high-end Architectural Hardware company.
The client for my most recent Rich Picture produce high quality door handles and other architectural hardware. Starting from humble beginnings in a garden shed in suburban Croydon and now in a glossy HQ in Crawley their "vision board" needed to encapsulate the journey so far and their ambition to expand into exclusive markets around the world.
Crawley is a medium-sized town close to Gatwick Airport, a long way from my home studio in a remote corner of Lancashire. A six-hour drive on a good day and more like eight hours on the day I travelled, two sets of diversions off the motorways showed me parts of rural Staffordshire, Surrey and West Sussex I had bypassed previously. So it goes! My reasonably priced B’n’B on the edge of Crawley specialised in people travelling via Gatwick. There was a decent pub nearby for a Fish and Chips supper and my needs were met.
Bright and early the next day I was admitted into the client’s reception by Zebby Clemons, the Coach and Business Transformation expert who had engaged my services and that I had only met via Zoom before then. We set up for our engagement sessions in the company showroom with the usual panoply of post-it notes and flip-charts in the capable hands of Keziah, who was “cat-herder in chief” for the day. I have done Rich Picture sessions with one person and a hundred, but I doubt I have ever had a day where I met such a high percentage of an entire workforce. Representatives from across the organisation from the warehouse and engineering shop floor to the marketing, sales and management teams were divided up into four one-hour sessions, each introduced in person by the Managing Director. Only a handful of the entire team were absent or unable to attend.
Engagement was good and the post-it notes flowed freely. Zebby knew how to “extract the juice” from the mixed groups of employees across all the functions and generations and we soon garnered a pretty good understanding of the positives and negatives, likes and dislikes across the whole company. In the gap between sessions Keziah amazed us by her typing speed as she captured the handwritten notes onto her laptop as quickly as we could read them out. It was clear the client company were doing most stuff well, the majority of staff were happy in their work and the quality of the product was a source of pride but there were some sub-optimal things too. All the groups called for the current ERP system to be replaced with something that made the job easier, rather than complicating matters. Storage room in the warehouse, more finishing capacity, access to parking and time to commute were also issues for some.
Detail of Vision Board showing staff getting hands-on training.
I had plenty of stuff to think about on the long (but fortunately diversion-free) drive home. The next day I set about getting as much of it down on paper in a first sketch. A representation of the headquarters building was front and centre, with the story of “where we came from” off to the top left horizon and “where we are going” to the top right.
We worked through five pencil iterations in the following weeks, receiving feedback in the usual bullet-point lists, annotated sketches and, in a first for me, WhatsApp videos recorded while pointing a phone camera at details of the picture on a computer screen. Whatever works.
I’m probably my own worst enemy but the artwork was one of the most complex of any I have attempted in nineteen years of Rich Pictures. It took me most of a fortnight to complete with all sorts of small details within the cutaway building that was loosely based on the actual Crawley HQ.
Detail of Vision Board showing strategy meeting in progress.
The client was pleased with the picture and is looking forward to use the Vision Board to help drive the whole company towards their global ambitions.
Detail of Vision Board for a leading UK luxury architectural hardware company.
If you think your organisation could benefit from a Rich Picture please drop me a line.
As a postscript I have just received a kind Linkedin recommendation from Zebby Clemons who commissioned me for this project which I’m happy to include in full:
“Paul created a rich picture for one of my clients that captured their journey and future vision brilliantly. He translated complex ideas into clear, engaging visuals that words alone couldn’t convey. The artwork will inspire employees, attract talent and engage partners. Paul was a pleasure to work with and I’d highly recommend him.”
Zebby Clemons,
Connecting people and teams with their purpose