Thanks to everyone who has commented on our website thus far, either privately or via social media. Your thoughts are welcome and always will be.
The vast majority of views shared have been positive, which is great. But one issue has divided opinion.
Yes, I am of course talking about “The Caricature” (dum, dum, DUM!)
Some of you love it, some quite like it (allegedly) and a few of you absolutely hate it. This is all good from our standpoint, because at least you’ve taken the time and trouble to have a look at our site.
The principal concern from those who have expressed “doubts” (I’m being polite) about the caricature is that it might suggest we don’t take ourselves too seriously. And that analysis would be correct. We don’t.
But this should not be confused with our professional approach to our work, as comments expressed by others on this website confirm.
When Vanessa and I were putting the VANBAR associates concept together, we decided that a couple of elements would be crucial, indeed, non-negotiable.
The first was that we would try to have some fun along the way. And we will. This ethos will also be reflected in our choice of associates in the time ahead. We want to work with good people, but we also want to work with real people. The two are not mutually exclusive.
And secondly, we’re particularly partial to original thinking. We make it clear elsewhere on the website that ideas will be at the heart of what we do, adding: “We don’t do ‘off-the-shelf’ campaigns.”
Neither, therefore, do we wish to use ‘off-the-shelf’ imagery.
It would have been easy to acquire a stock photo or two to pad out the front page of the site. Something boring, something loud, something – dare I say – pretentious. But where is the original thinking in that?
So, instead, we went with the best we had – which turned out to be “The Caricature.” And it’s staying, for now at least.
The plan was never to use it for long. As we build our client base and start to bring associates on-board, the company will evolve and our website will evolve with it. That is one of the reasons we chose to build it ourselves – it’s a living site and we can and will make changes very quickly.
If you do hate the front page, that’s perfectly in order. But please don’t despair and do keep coming back. Your nightmare could be over sooner than you fear.