MacFarlane pulls doppelganger
Ramsay MacFarlane, MD of Ramsay Design & Creation, has taken a contentious website which aped the style of his former employer offline stating, “I’ve made my point.”
The mirror site was borne out of an acrimonious dispute over unpaid fees with former employer Nation1. This had reached an impasse at the Small Claims Court after it was discovered that the company invoiced for payment, Futurecomm International Ltd, had been declared insolvent.
Having run out of options Macfarlane turned his talents toward creating a spoof site in a “drive for justice” and to make contact with others in a similar boat. It was an approach which found grudging admiration from Nation1 head Andrew Grant who wrote on his blog “It’s not the type of microsite I’d have developed myself, however I was impressed they took time to get our branding right.”
Explaining his decision MacFarlane said: “I’ve been diligent but polite in chasing payment. I’ve had a number of very civilised e-mail and telephone conversations with the individual in question regarding payment, to no avail. I therefore was keen to find out if there were others in the industry who were experiencing difficulty getting paid.
“I believe small and creative consultancies are the future for our Industry and if others in the same situation as me experience the same payment problems as me, this will kill our digital creative community; any future business births will be stillborn.
“Small companies in Scotland can’t be trampled underfoot. To survive, we have to be vocal and persistent,” said MacFarlane.