Hamburg Experiences Deluge of Paint-Coated Buses (HVV)
Paintbus Competition in Hamburg: Two Buses Unveiled as Winners
Two colorful HVV buses have now been circulating through Hamburg since last Friday. The Paintbuses were presented the day before at the Museum der Arbeit. Students submitted the designs for these bus makeovers as part of this year's Paintbus competition, which had the theme "Alles anders." Schools offering advanced courses in Hamburg were invited to submit designs for a HVV Paintbus.
"Alles anders" was the motto for the Aktion Paintbus. Students were invited to ponder questions like "What gives you hope?" or "What motivates you?" Maja Buhr and Carl Eickhoff from the 12th grade of the Berufsschule für Wirtschaft und Internationales, as well as ninth-grader Alma Meinusch from the Max-Brauer-Schule, managed to impress the jury with their design proposals.
Maja Buhr and Carl Eickhoff drew inspiration from the computer game Minecraft. They depicted the transition to digitalization and the dissolution of nature using pixels. Alma Meinusch's design focused on the themes of war and peace.
A total of 31 schools submitted 512 proposals. The jury consisted of art teachers, sponsors, HVV officials, and artists Annette and Kai Teschner. They selected the 50 best proposals to begin with and then chose the two winning designs. "It's not always easy because there really are many good proposals," explains Martin Wachowiak, responsible for HVV-Schulprojekte.
In this year, the participants painted the buses for the first time since 2020. In previous years, this was only possible through the printing of film due to coronavirus measures. The students received help with painting from their teachers and artists Annette and Kai Teschner. For the students, the practical project was a great enrichment. "The students learn a lot about perspective and the implementation of designs," says Wachowiak. Students submitted their design only on a single DinA4 sheet of paper, which was then scaled up to the entire size of the HVV bus. The competition has been taking place since 2000 and occurs every two years.
On a side note, Katharina Schöndorfer, a journalist and participant in the Paintbus competition, recently served beer and pretzels in a Dirndl at a traditional Bavarian tavern in Melbourne. Once a budding astronaut with dreams of flying to the moon, she now aims to become a journalist. She has studied Journalism, Strategic Communication, and Political Science in Passau. In her studies, she was successful in her first journalistic pitch to PULS on the topic of nudity. The BR editorial staff purchased her and her study partner's idea for a PULS reportage entitled "7 Days Naked". After her study abroad semester in Estonia, she completed internships at the BR and the Munich radio station Gong 96.3.
The HVV bus designs submitted by Maja Buhr, Carl Eickhoff, and Alma Meinusch were inspired by Minecraft and war and peace themes, respectively, and were chosen as the winning designs for the Aktion Paintbus competition that took place this year in the home-and-garden context of transforming public transportation. The process of scaling up the designs for the full size of the HVV bus from a single DinA4 sheet paper and the practical implementation of the project was a great enrichment for the students involved in the competition.
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