Best possible start to 2026?
With the annual tax bill and quarterly VAT bill looming plus a higher than average (post-Christmas) credit card bill January is always a straightened time of year for me (and many others!). A year earlier I had sent of a hopeful email to half a dozen or so former clients hoping to generate some work in what is sometimes referred to as "The Kipper Season" (everything's flat!). It didn't work in 2025 but…
…in January 2026 one of those emails got a reply. I know people say you shouldn’t have favourites but these guys have been top of my list for about a decade now. I can’t name them, or show you more than some very zoomed-in details from the picture, which is a pity because there are many shiny machines and other visually interesting bits I spent a long time drawing. Previously the description “a high-end engineering design and manufacturing organisation with a very strong brand and marketing bias” was used to maintain their anonymity. So this email response a year later was the best possible start to my year. This globally-recognised brand don’t quibble on price and they are super-responsive with very detailed feedback which keeps the job flowing. On top of that they always have a sense of humour about the process, on occasions I have had to reel in their wish to include in-jokes at the expense of the big boss. I pointed out that I couldn’t be fired (just never used again) whereas their careers were on the line if the joke landed badly! They took my point, they are all still in post.
In a nutshell they are a joy to work with and I have done some of my favourite jobs with them. The first video meeting was a joy too, with the two clients on the same Teams call, the space between their heads filled with half a dozen or so previous Rich Picture jobs I had completed for them, still earning a place on the wall in the Head of Supply Chain Operation’s office. They are printed on acrylic and velcroed to the wall where they can easily be taken down and used in meetings- “are we doing it like it says in the picture?”. This was a lovely ego-boost and when I pointed out the carefully staged looking nature of the set-up they were adamant that that’s just the way the camera has to point to get both of them in shot.
I can’t share any of the conversation that took place after that but a week later I was back at their snazzy campus HQ, noting how much had changed since my last visit a few years ago and how unrecognisable it was from my first visit in 2016. I snagged the penultimate visitors’ parking space (which was a big relief because the headcount had expanded enormously over the years and I didn’t have a plan-B) . A full day of meetings, with one-to-ones with team leaders and an afternoon with the whole group, bookended by sessions with the two Heads gave me more than a headful of ideas to ruminate upon on the long drive home.
Five or six pencil iterations were worked through over the course of five or six weeks and the artwork took about another week. The audience was a small one, arguably just a handful of senior people within the organisation, all of whom appeared as recognisable figures within the picture which was slightly nerve-wracking as my pared-back style of drawing figures doesn’t lend itself to flattering portraiture!
I managed to work in my usual red pencil “watermark”. In this case the text on the pencil is in 1.2 point type in the artwork. If I zoomed out any further I would inevitably have to involve some globally recognisable company livery and logos and therefore risk annoying my favourite client.
(Off the back of this job, thanks to some word-of-mouth recommendations at a barbecue, I picked up the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue job mentioned in an earlier blog post.)
I’m going to wrap up by including the recommendation received from consultant Phill Hall back in 2016 after the very first Rich Picture with this client:
“I was facing a client dilemma – working with a high-end engineering design and manufacturing organisation with a very strong brand and marketing bias, and needing to develop with them a clear and unambiguous vision of the future to anchor the improvement project around. I needn’t have worried – having worked with Paul previously I felt very comfortable recommending his capability to the organisation, and he didn’t disappoint. He very quickly built a strong rapport with the team involved, and took the genesis of an idea that had already been created and developed it into a strong and clear description of the future they are trying to create.
The future vision that he has helped them to visualise is now taking pride of place within each team area of the organisation, and provides a constant compass and reference point for all the decisions they are making. Most importantly, this organisation talks about the picture as theirs and not Paul’s, which powerfully demonstrates how Paul managed to bring out the images that were lurking in each team members head and pull them all together into one cohesive vision.”
Philip Hall | Training Director | Spitfire
plus some more recent feedback from the client (MH) who has been involved in each of the jobs I have done for this organisation:
“Firstly, working with Paul is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Paul has an ability to engage a team, allowing the exploration and coaxing out of a shared understanding which enables the creation of a powerful rich picture vision. The vision picture is the end result, but its not the only outcome…
Creating the vision involves taking the team on a journey; by describing an ideal state in basic analogies, that everyone can understand, allowing the questioning of the intended and unintended meanings/implications in the analogy and if that is what the team are really trying to describe. Through this questioning and debate a successful future vision can be agreed, one in which the same scenario can be described by everyone in their own words, but they are describing the same picture. An aligned vision owned by everyone.”
M.H.
Including the reworked versions we are into double figures of Rich Pictures delivered to this client in the last decade, none of which I can show online. If we are ever in the same room they are all ones I might show-off on my iPad. If you think you might have what it takes to be a favourite client please drop me a line!
Paul Shorrock