Tom Karen Designer

Ogle Times

David Ogle started his design company David Ogle Associates, in 1946. He then moved on to an office in Stevenage, employing four designers (including myself having left Ford) and a secretary.

In 1960 he designed his first car and moved to large premises in Letchworth. He formed a new company, David Ogle Ltd, backed by wealthy car enthusiasts. He designed a two seat body to fit the Mini and started manufacture. In May 1962 he had a fatal crash in one of them. Two days later I had a call (at Philips where I managed a studio) from one of his backers, John Ogier, inviting me to talk to them. I was then offered the position of MD and Chief Designer.

The car making side was making heavy losses and Ogle’s biggest client, Bush Radio, gave six months notice. With Ogier’s effective support as Chairman, car manufacture was wound down, I managed to keep Ogle’s clients and bring in new ones (Electrolux and Reliant in particular), the two companies were formed into Ogle Design Ltd. and by 1965 we had a viable operation with a Director for Admin & Finance, I had a great PA and the design and model making departments were in good shape.

Ogle’s USP was the quality of its staff: I was able to recruit good people from the best design courses (we preferred to train them ourselves, the same went for model makers who took part in the creative process). As a result we were able to offer quality design and delivered on time. We could tackle a wide range of products, from trucks to toys (reflecting my wide interests) and our comprehensive model making facilities enabled us to build items such as a double-decker bus and a 45ft aircraft fuselage, fully detailed inside and out. No independent design studio in the UK could match this.

At some point we started developing 'dummies' for crash testing that became an important part of Ogle’s activities. We were also able buy the adjoining site and build a new 5000ft square model shop there.

In the late nineties Ogle was restructured with design going to a Norwegian company, the dummies went to the US and the model prototype activity implemented a buy-out becoming OMP (Ogle Models and Prototypes).

When I retired after nearly four decades I was able to indulge in art and craft activities, run workshops for children and make toys for my grandchild.