After an absence of some 15 years, Bernard Ramsay returns to Mashramani Float and Costume designing ‘Tek ah Taste & Leh We X It’ for the Slingshot 2011 band.
Mash Camp.
According to a press release from John ‘Slingshot’ Drepaul, he invited Ramsay to join his 2011 Slingshot Mash Camp team and design a non-commercial large float just for the love of it, and the intrepid designer, who now lives in the US, just could not resist the lure.
According to Slingshot, who has debuted a new calypso for Mashramani 2011 called “Slingshot for President”, Ramsay began designing Floats & Costume Bands in 1974 shortly after returning to Guyana from the UK where he studied and worked as an Advertising Graphic Artist for six years. On his return in 1973, he took a natural interest in the development of Mashramani which was only just in its infancy as a Republic celebration event.
He had several winning bands as well as four Band of the Year titles in his long, enjoyable and exciting 24 years stint as a costume designer. He also won several King and Queen of the band, and Male and Female individuals titles. His first costume band, a most ambitious undertaking of 300 in the large band category entitled ‘Land of Many Waters’. Among his most memorable was “Not a Blade of Grass’, the music for the latter was supplied by Dave Martins & The Tradewinds, the release said.
It was not unusual for Ramsay’s Mash Camp to design two or three bands at the same time, and on many occasions for all three categories – large, medium and small. While living in Antigua, Ramsay also participated in the carnival there and in the Cayman Islands, where he organized workshops in costume designing for the Cayman carnival.
His love for Graphic Arts & Costume Designing, led him to designing and building sets for plays at the National Cultural Centre, as well as countless interior designs for clubs, bars and hotels as well as booths for nation exhibitions including CARIMEX in Barbados.
According to the release, Ramsay owned and managed Creative Advertising & Marketing Limited from 1980 to 2006 and Tribal Vibes a design company until he left with his wife Debbie for the United States.
