After 27 years, John Bandringa was leaving — and a corporate goodbye would have missed him entirely. So we asked the team a different question: what is the moment with John you carry with you? The answers became something only the people who worked with him could have made.
The request came from my UX Design Director: create something for our Industrial Design Director, who was leaving after 27 years. To inspire the team, we suggested everyone wear or hold something John could resonate with, and take a selfie — so we could make a collage to present as a farewell gift.
One of my hobbies is photography — over time I became a semi-professional photographer with my own studio. So I brought the equipment and set it up in the office. After that, my path was easy (I guess — what could go wrong?): photograph each team member with their props, on a green screen.
High hopes met reality when team members arrived with props that were not as small as I expected. A few people weren't available, so I gave remote instructions to keep their photos consistent — I felt for Jim Fullmer, whom I had to ask to bend on his knees because of his 6'5" height. The real challenge came after the shoot: how do you fit 34 people, with props ranging from a tea cup to something large, into a single photo and make it look right — across diverse heights and proportions?
Each person, each prop — captured to be composited together.
Remote subjects directed to match the studio lighting and framing.
I laid everyone out horizontally into one big strip, 7 inches tall by 84 inches wide (7 feet) — enough to see the whole team with their props. I made the photo black and white but kept the props in their original color, putting all the emphasis on the story each one carried with John.
The kind of feedback I always love to hear — couldn't get better than when he said, with full emotion: WOW, AWESOME, AMAZING. Believe me, he almost cried.
The gift was not a product. It was a record of what they had carried together.