Mahari-Rae Ogilvie has always had a passion for the visual arts. From primary school, when her classmates would ask her to do bubble writing for them, through to secondary school, where she excelled in graphic design, Ogilvie always knew she wanted to carve out a creative career. And now, at just 17, she is enjoying her first taste of professional success thanks to the Mastercard creative challenge.
“My mum can’t stop talking about it,” says Ogilvie. “Sometimes it’s hard to explain what we do on my course, but now my family gets it and they think it’s amazing.”
The creative challenge was led and set by Mastercard and was open to all students at the Brit School, one of the UK’s leading performing and creative arts schools, and it’s here that south-Londoner Ogilvie is studying interactive digital design. Having entered the challenge without success last year, Ogilvie jumped at the chance to have another go, with students asked to reimagine the Mastercard sonic logo in any art form of their choice. (Wondering what a sonic logo is? Listen out for the distinctive six-note melody that plays at the end of any Mastercard advert.)
Reflecting on her creative process, Ogilvie says: “My brain does a weird thing … When I listen to music, I always get an image in my head. And when I listened to the Mastercard sonic, the first thing that came to my head was nature. I got a vision of a rock monster in my head – a mythical monster creature in a forest.”
Ogilvie made a digital painting of her rock monster and submitted it along with a description of her creation back in November last year. “He doesn’t have a face but inside his chest there’s a cave with flowers growing,” says Ogilvie, who says nature and sustainability are important themes for her.
Ogilvie was blown away when her teacher told her that her concept was one of 14 that will be showcased at this year’s Brit Awards, beamed across screens at the O2 and into millions of living rooms across the country. “It’s crazy. I’m so excited for the awards – I feel like one of the artists that have been nominated,” says Ogilvie, who will attend the ceremony in March. The event will be the culmination of months of hard work and anticipation, as Ogilvie sees her idea come to full technicolour fruition in front of an audience packed with industry luminaries.
“When our concepts were chosen, we were told that a professional team would work on them so they might change and adapt,” says Ogilvie. “But when I saw the final version of the rock monster, it came out exactly as I’d designed it, so I was really happy.”
As part of the process, a professional team created a 3D figurine of the rock monster that now sits on Ogilvie’s bedroom shelf. There was a photoshoot and a filming day, in which Ogilvie saw her concept transfer to the big screen via CGI.
“It was my first experience of being on set,” says Ogilvie, who got to meet and work alongside the team that brought the rock monster to life. “There were lots of people for me to meet – stylists, camera operators, people who work in production and design … It was great to make contacts. We were in a big professional studio and I thought to myself: ‘Wow, this is like being in a Marvel [film]!’ People kept saying: ‘She’s the one who came up with the rock monster,’ and it made me so happy that people enjoyed the idea as much as I did. I felt like a movie star that day.”
Seeing behind the scenes of the creative process has fuelled Ogilvie to pursue a design career – her only challenge now is to settle on a particular discipline. “I want to be involved in everything. Right now, I’m dabbling in 3D modelling, graphic design, illustration, film, website design … I want to do it all!”
Adding strings to her bow is something that comes naturally at the Brit School, where Ogilvie says she and her friends on other courses naturally share ideas and pick up skills from one another. “Seeing how other people’s brains work is cool,” says Ogilvie, describing how her friend encouraged her to get into 3D design. “She taught me some things, I taught her some things. We all learn from each other.”
“We get so many opportunities here,” she says. “As well as this Mastercard challenge, we’ve got to meet people from Meta, and I’ve had my work displayed at the ExCel centre. We get access to mentors from companies like Nike, Vogue and Spotify, and I’ve recently signed up to find out more about a Warner Bros apprenticeship. If I’d stayed at my old school, I’d never have had this many opportunities or been able to blossom like this.”
Best of all, Ogilvie says the Mastercard challenge has boosted her confidence and self-belief. “This time, it’s not just my teachers and my friends who like my work – now people from outside are seeing my potential. The fact they saw my design and thought it was good enough to be plastered all over the O2? That’s amazing.”
The BRIT Awards 2024 with Mastercard will take place on Saturday 2 March – watch live from the O2 arena on ITV1 or catch up on ITVX. Mastercard is proud to sponsor the BRIT Awards and support the BRIT School. Discover more at mastercard.co.uk/BRITS