How We Became Proudly Absurd
In 2016 Iain entered the Bewilderbeest drawing into a village art competition and came third...out of three. He lost to an oil painting of Princess Diana, and a still life drawing of a chair.
Undeterred, Iain decided to use the drawing as the logo for his new business. Make of that what you will.
Iain soon found out that it was possible to get paid for doing colouring in and being a bit of an idiot. Eventually, he quit his sensible and really quite boring job so he could sit around in his underwear and come up with silly drawings for a living.
Over the years the business grew, until Maddy (now married to Iain, poor girl) joined Bewilderbeest full time in 2020 as Chief of Odd (but let's face it, she had already been running Bewilderbeest for several years, just unpaid).
Since then, Bewilderbeest has won awards, now stocks hundreds of shops across the world, and truly become PROUDLY ABSURD.
Meet the odd bunch that bring you Bewilderbeest
Iain
Iain is Chief Nitwit of Bewilderbeest. Having grown up on the family farm, Iain worked in the field of agriculture (get it?) for a number of years before hanging up his wellies to do what he loves for a living. Now based in sunny Suffolk, Iain paints nonsense, and rarely wears trousers.
Qualifications: Won the Farmers Weekly colouring competition aged 8.
Life goal: To be able to hold a handstand in his pants.
Maddy
Maddy helps hugely with the marketing, business planning and Iain’s sanity. She comes to all the shows and exhibitions with Iain, and keeps him topped up with snacks to make sure he’s in good spirits.
Maddy also grew up on a farm and, as Iain’s wife, has to put up with hearing all of Iain’s ideas, good and bad. She’s saved you all from some truly questionable puns!
In her free time Maddy specialises in bespoke drawings of Colonel Mustang – unfortunately, these are not for sale as they are for a private collector (Iain).
Qualifications: Advanced Diploma in newspaper codeword puzzles.
Life goal: To pet a cheetah.
Becky
Becky is the Logistics Loon and helps with the general admin / accounts / madness at Bewilderbeest. She claims to be the sanest member of the team, but that still leaves a lot of room for being a nutter.
More efficient than a bicycle going downhill, Becky keeps Bewilderbeest running smooth as butter.
Qualifications: Holds the world record for the most children’s toys tidied away in a day, by one person.
Life goal: To get her children to take the world record title from her. Or at least make an attempt towards it!
Emilija
Emilija is a dog-loving elite level organiser who is cool as a cucumber under pressure. In fact, we'd go so far as to say she is as cool as two cucumbers!
When she’s not solving problems before they even exist, she can usually be found triple-checking that everything is exactly where it should be, with 80s music playing at a very reasonable but motivational volume.
Qualifications: Holds the world record for making the perfect cup of coffee… while blindfolded. (There was a lot of yelping involved)
Life goal: To finally figure out how to get a full eight hours of sleep.
Colonel Mustang
Having risen rapidly through the ranks, Colonel Mustang has chosen a new path in life as Director of Comms at Bewilderbeest. When not sleeping on the job, he answers the phone and squawks for food. He has yet to do a full day’s work, but Maddy and Iain are confident that he will regain some of his military vigour and discipline in time.
Qualifications: PhD in String Theory
Life goal: To break the world record for most consecutive hours slept in one sitting.
“A bird in the paw is worth two in the bush, but I wouldn’t mind the two in the bush as well!”
Colonel Mustang Proverb
Major Ajax
The youngest member of the Bewilderbeest team, Major Ajax has taken on the role of Head of Logistics. Basically, if something isn’t packaged quick enough it’s chewed to pieces to encourage Iain and Maddy to pull their finger out next time.
Will give discounts for belly rubs.
Qualifications: Holds the world record for the most pieces of newspaper chewed in under a minute.
Life goal: To catch his own tail.