Arnold Worldwide and Rob Dunlavey team up on award winning Volkswagen promotion

The completed star finder. The translucent blue disc on top of the illustrated chart can be rotated to correspond to the date. The area in the center shows the appropriate section of the visible night sky.

by Rob Dunlavey

I received an interesting request from Andrea Ricker at Arnold Worldwide in Boston after the swells at B!G had treated Arnold's creatives to breakfast and a portfolio viewing back in 2003. It's always exciting to see your marketing efforts pay off so quickly! The job eventually earned Arnold several prominent awards and Volkswagen's star continues to soar:
• International Automotive Advertising Awards (IAAA), 2003 (Silver)
• International Andy Awards, 2004 (Silver) [more info]

Andrea reminded me that Arnold was involved in promoting Volkswagen's convertible beetle for its North American debut. Their idea was for a kit to be given to all new owners that would encourage them to experience the world in the serendipitous way that the Volkswagen brand embodies. And what better way to experience nature than from the windswept confines of your new beetle on those blissful nighttime jaunts? The concept? A fully functional star chart!

Once we worked out the terms and I accepted the job, Andrea passed me off to art director Adele Ellis who was designing and illustrating the accompanying packet of collateral materials which included guides to various forms of natural and human wildlife and even a packet of bird seed!

My version of the constellation Ophiochus. Below is a 16th century reference

My vision for the chart was based on a vintage Hammond Star Finder. Using a hi-res scan of my wife's childhood star chart as a model, I laid out my design including all relevant type in Macromedia Freehand 9. Other reference material was gathered from the web. Arnold provided output of their comps which guided my stylistic approach. Colors were chosen so that the chart would be legible at night: the type and constellations would be bright while the illustrations would be muted in color. Sketches were created directly in Freehand and I emailed draft pdfs to Adele Ellis. After several rounds of refinement, the chart was ready to send to Arnold's Production staff. My final output were hi-res EPS vector files. lesser-known constellations are also included in the convertible Beetle's star finder The final new owners packet included the star chart, bird seed and several booklets about nature. The team at Arnold was a pleasure to work with. Relations were flexible, creative and respectful of what I had to contribute. I had a lot of creative freedom within the constraints of the peculiar format of this promotion.

Another more familiar constellation