Ozzy

Background
BMW (GB) held a series of annual conventions at which all dealer heads would fly off to some exotic location to be briefed on, and to discuss, marketing plans for the forthcoming year. The late '80s had been a very bad period for car manufacturers generally and there was a air of doom and gloom throughout the industry. I picked up on this and adopted a cartoon ostrich as a central theme to run through that year's (1988?) promotional material - the idea being 'don't stick your head in the sand, face up to the difficulties for success in the future'.

Brief
Design invites, welcome packs etc., for the BMW (GB) Florida Convention.

Solution
Applied 'Ozzy' the ostrich (illustrated in many different ways by the great Arthur Robins) in an amusing manner to an extensive list of items that ranged in size from delegates' badges to a huge sports day scoreboard.

Result
Generally a huge success - apart from two minor hiccups... Arthur Robins was bedridden with a slipped disc before he'd completed all the drawings, so I had to do a couple at the last minute mimicking his inimitable style. And... after spending hours the day before the sports day finishing off the massive scoreboard (we had to stick images on with glue, use black electricians' tape to make lines and the wording was done with big Letraset lettering), we arrived the next day to find to our horror that our artwork had been somewhat altered by an unnoticed overnight sprinkler system. But the high point for me was the winner's trophy. Taking its lead from the classic Guinness ads of a bygone era, this consisted of a one foot high sculpted 'Ozzy' head and neck which incorporated a swallowed F.A. Cup-type trophy, painted gold and mounted on a standard black plastic plinth. A work of sheer genius. My finest hour.