Imagery is Everything

I’ve made the following statement, “I love my job”, hundreds of times in my 6 year tenure with VMI.  First of all, Marketing is just fun, it’s that simple.  Secondly, I work for a phenomenal company.  So when you combine the joy of marketing and great people to work with and for, your job at times doesn’t really seem like work. 

We recently went through a minor brand re-fresh here at VMI and a large part of that re-fresh was imagery.  I think we’ve always done a great job of capturing real life and real customers with our wheelchair vans, since 90% of the models we use are VMI van owners.  We take pictures of people both on location and in the studio for use in various mediums; web site, brochures, billboards, etc.   The below picture was a great shoot in downtown Mesa, AZ; “Ladies Night Out”. 

Ladies Night Out - Mesa Arts Center

 The below shot was taken in our studio.  The woman is Wendy Wolfe, former Ms. Wheelchair Arizona who was gracious enough to help us with these great pictures. 

2007 Honda Odyssey with the VMI Northstar Conversion

Now, there is nothing wrong with these pictures.  But, anyone who is buying a wheelchair van knows there is a ramp and knows it will give them freedom and independence.  What these pictures don’t show is emotion.  What does that freedom and independence feel like?  We decided to put a call out in the Phoenix area for wheelchair users to participate in a photo shoot that was just about them, not about vans, not about their disability, just about them being who they are.  We took the below photo of our new friend Mike and his date.  I love this photo because it captures a moment. 

Mike and his date

Then, we took these photos and put them on various backgrounds to show that these moments can happen anywhere. 

2011 VMI Honda Odyssey

 

The three days we spent in the studio with our wheelchair models was fun and inspiring.  We had a young boy, Bryce, who has a rare genetic disorder that has left him 100% dependent on his family.  He can’t walk or talk, but what he can do is smile.  Bryce’s mother talked very openly about Bryce’s condition and never once mentioned the struggles of caring for a disabled child; all she talked about was the joy that Bryce brings to everyone he meets.  He surely did touch our hearts!

Happy Bryce!

We hope you like our new imagery as much as we do.  Imagine Possibilities!