Penny Gaylor: Bus design competition proves popular

Design a Metlink bus competition was popular.

Weekly column by Kāpiti's Greater Wellington Regional Council representative Penny Gaylor.
Opinion:

Three young artists from Kāpiti learned they are one step closer this week to seeing their design turned into a real-life Metlink bus.

The Design a Metlink bus competition, part of Metlink's contribution to this year's Brendan Foot Supersite (BFS) Round the Bays festivities, saw hundreds of kids put colouring pencil to paper in a bid to design their very own Metlink bus.

Fifteen designs from tamariki across the region made it onto the shortlist, including Kāpiti artists Ellie, 10, as well as Ava, 12, and Poppy, 14, who put in a joint entry.

There was a huge response from young budding artists around our region, and as we know the Kāpiti Coast has a thriving arts culture, so no surprises our young artists feature in the selection for shortlist consideration.

There were so many exciting designs that we had to bend the rules of the competition. We'll now be choosing two winning designs to be turned into bus wrappings instead of one.

Kids designing a bus.

And because all the shortlisted entries deserve recognition of their cool designs, we're turning them into posters that will brighten up bus shelters all around the region.

Adshels featuring the shortlisted entries will go up in bus shelters across the region in late April.

The winners and their whānau will be invited to the unveiling of their specially designed bus before it hits Wellington's streets.

The two winning bus designs will be announced next week. In the meantime, people can peruse all the shortlisted entries for the Design a Metlink bus competition on Metlink's website: https://www.metlink.org.nz/news-and-updates/news/design-a-metlink-bus-finalists