For over ten years TruMark Financial has hired me to draw at their new branch Grand Opening events all over the Philly area and surrounding suburbs. But In the winter of 2018, the manager of their Call Center contacted me with a different request – to come to corporate headquarters and sketch their call center employees.
The contact was a woman named Susan and she explained to me her grand vision that she was going to have an entire wall that depicted humorous caricatures of each and every person on her call center team. Dealing with upset customers who are calling you because they are in need of someone — anyone — to vent their frustrations is often a very daunting, stressful job and I thought this was a really nice way to show employee appreciation for all their hard work and dedication.
I showed up to Trumark’s Corporate Headquarters in Fort Washington, PA on a Saturday morning in April with my easel and gear to find that Susan had a fully catered breakfast spread for everyone! So after indulging on some delicious sausage, eggs, coffee and bagels I began sketching the call center team one by one.
A lot of the team members were off that Saturday, but came in anyway with the sole purpose of getting their caricature done by yours truly for inclusion on this epic wall. Susan also had a life-sized Jenga setup, chess, and random games that contributed to the party atmosphere of this Saturday caricature sketching extravaganza. Employees brought their family and friends as well in hopes that they could get their caricature drawn as well (we squeezed them in of course).
We got most of the 50 or so employees done for the wall. But a month later I get another call from Susan — turns out she just made some new hires and they needed their sketch in order to be considered a “part of the team” and added to the epic wall!
The infamous “wall of caricatures” is on display as soon as you set foot within the TruMark Financial corporate headquarters. The wall became such a huge hit that employees were using their caricatures as their intranet profile pics, and non-call center employees are ofter found just sitting in the lobby gazing up on the grandiose wall of caricatures. Susan uses the wall as incentives to join the call center team, and gives team members their sketch as a parting “good luck” gift when they leave to work in another department or at another job. Susan really knows how to treat her employees right!
It’s now more than a year later and I’m returning for my 5th time next week to sketch the VP of the company in addition to some more new hires. I’ll keep showing up as long as they keep hiring new people (and keep feeding me!!!)
Client Testimonial:
Chris captures the inter-essence of the person he is sketching. His caricature art stands out amongst other artists in this field. I commissioned him to do a gallery wall of our team that works in the Call Center of our credit union. As soon as you step into the Call Center, the pieces of art are front and center. They command the foyer with such beauty and make the Team feel as though this is their space. Visitors and other teammates from the building will sit in the tranquil space and enjoy each piece of artwork! Chris has found the ability to speak to you by capturing the beauty of each person he sketches. I highly recommend Chris with 5 Stars! He is a Master of Caricature!!
Susan M.,
TruMark Financial Credit Union