The Kinsley Group on Display
When Ken Kinsley started the Kinsley Equipment company in 1964, there was no telling which direction the business would go. Now, after 54 years of business and a shift in focus to energy solutions, the Kinsley Group takes direction from Ken’s son David Kinsley. When he and Patti Stewkesbury, Kinsley’s marketing director, decided they wanted to show off the company’s work by displaying installation examples, they turned to their employees’ photographic eye to capture field images.
Before: The artwork that hung in the company halls prior to the new photos.
The staff were challenged to take onsite photos of their installations. The incentive of a visa gift card was awarded to the photo that received the most “likes” per quarter on social media. The photos, many taken using just a cellphone, taken by employees ranging from technicians to the CEO were collected in hopes of finding a modern way to display them. It was important that both employees and clients could walk past and view the work being demonstrated with pride.
“We were replacing a lot of disparate framed legacy artwork. I wanted to find something that was more forward looking that showed the growth and progressive look of the company.” Patti searched for unique framing options and found Artmill.com. “The Gallery Acrylic is exactly what we needed. We have a core values sign that was already in acrylic and these mirrored that.”
Since the company is rooted in family, Patti wanted to include an art piece that put those ideals at the forefront. Artmill combined scanned and newer digital photos of the current leadership, the founder, and other company milestones. We then laid out and created a collage that displayed the history of the company. Per Patti, “It looks really clean, nice, and impressive. That one piece greets people at the front door and denotes everything that represents the long legacy of Kinsley.”
The staff at Kinsley seemed to enjoy not only the final product, but everything about the process including hanging up the photos. Patti describes their facility manager’s delight, “He hung all of those pictures and he loved it. The cleats made his life so much easier.”
The final impression always comes back to the photos and how they reflect Kinsley. Patti enjoys passing by her favorite image of three generators silhouetted at sunset because it tells a story that shows their product in a new light, “We’re selling generators. They’re big pieces of equipment the size of a dumpster, but the people who took the photos turned heavy, clunky power systems into pieces that could fit in a gallery.”
