Psychedelic Cow
Introducing Blodwen the cow. An uncannily, anatomically accurate, life-size model cow.
Blodwen was commissioned by a farming charity here in Wales. When she arrived, she was sporting a rather tired and beleaguered rendition of the Welsh flag. Initial discussions about my brief with the Head of Marketing went something like this:
‘Could you do us a new design in our logo colours and keep it… agricultural-themed?’
‘Your logo colours: you mean dark green and dark red [the colours of the flag/design it is already sporting] ?’
‘Yes’
‘Ok, so is this cow to be used for promotional purposes? To attract attention? Draw people to your stand at various farming events?’
‘Yes’
‘Ok, well then I’d definitely suggest not painting it in a design that matches your logo colours, but instead striking out with something bold, fresh and … and in fact, clashes or juxtaposes with your logo/branding…’
‘Yes! You’re right! Let’s go with that!’
And on that note, I was entrusted to my own freewheeling devices to come up with a new design for Blodwen.
The PR dept of any farming charity is always going to be a balancing act: honouring traditional on the one hand, with the need to move with the times too. My job, as I see it, is sometimes to bridge those things. I’m very grateful to work with clients who trust me to ‘do my thing’ and in the end, trounce their expectations by producing something they didn’t know they wanted, but end up loving far more than their initial idea.
