Introduction:
Viking Pump, Inc. has been a pump industry leader and innovator since its founding in 1911 and is building an ever-growing experience to deliver innovative pumping solutions (including custom designs) to thousands of customers who use millions of Viking pumps in some of the world’s toughest applications. “From one pump in an Iowa quarry to millions of pumps worldwide.”
Process:

Goals:
The goal was to create an illustrative lettering roadmap to help Smart Summit attendees visualize how to bridge the gap between the company’s strong history and the desired future of putting pump knowledge to work using outside-the-box, modern thinking. The piece needed to appeal to an older generation of workers and also the young millennials coming into the workforce.
Challenges:
- The amount of content posed a challenge, and I had to determine the hierarchy of what should be large and what should be small. The client provided clarity on this when I was unsure.
- Determining the layout was a challenge. Initially, I wanted both the “history” and “future” portions to take up equal amounts of space, but after drafting and working with the content I decided the “history” section should be larger for several reasons:
- 1) The history holds a lot of the company’s identity. It’s important not to skimp on that aspect, but to explain it in full to help inform the future.
- 2) The history is foundational to the future. The foundation isn’t going away, but changing. In order to show how things would change in the future, I needed the space to show how they were in the past. An example: I illustrated a large binder (which is actually a much much smaller representation of the real thing!) in the “history” section, and a smaller ipad with a digital file on the “future” section.
- 3) The “future” isn’t here yet. It made sense to visually dedicate more space to the “history” side and to give a smaller preview of what is to come on the “future” side.
Reception:
What I learned:
- Involving the client is essential to successful illustration projects. Sometimes the client won’t know how to communicate an idea until they see a draft, and it’s important to be flexible in early stages. All good illustrations start as rough drafts until they are ready to be finalized and move on the the “inking” stage (even in digital formats).
- I will always share what I think will look best with the client, but sometimes the client knows their audience better than I do. Instead of a “perfect-to-me” project, I want something the client loves, needs, and feels will reach their audience best, even if I disagree.
- I loved this project! I felt like I was able to insert my personal style and humor into the piece, especially with the viking characters. I can’t wait to do more projects like this one!