Client: City of Kinston

Overview

The City of Kinston recently purchased three new trash trucks. This corresponded with Vicki Scuri Siteworks recently completing a Public Art Master Plan for the City of Kinston. The city saw the trash trucks as an opportunity for art. Their large white sides presented perfect canvases for art relating to civic pride and community. The trucks are wrapped in vinyl that has been printed with imagery created by Vicki Scuri Siteworks. Both seven by fourteen foot sides and the seven by seven foot back of each truck carry the art. This is public art that comes into people’s neighborhoods.

Goals

The goal of this project is to increase civic pride and environmental awareness by incorporating artwork onto three trash trucks. The artwork for the Kinston trash trucks uses the ideas of responsible waste management and recycling as frames for seeing and maintaining the beauty of the city. This is expressed with three themes: the Neuse River, civic sculptures and local recreation. Each truck carries its own theme. Truck 1 features the Neuse River in both Autumn and Spring with a message about the city’s award-winning water. Truck 2 features the Music Park and the “Flue” sculpture with a message about the city’s recycling program. Truck 3 features the Water Park and Grainger Stadium with a message about the city’s LED streetlights. Each truck is different, but cohesive with the group. The frames are built out of images of commonly recycled objects: paper, plastic and glass. These frames are conceptual picture frames, like the gold frames found around classical paintings. The artwork was custom designed to fit onto the trucks and integrating the artwork was the chief priority of the design.

Process

Our client, who had recently worked with us on parts of their city’s new Public Art plan, contacted us and asked if we would be interested in designing artwork for three new trash trucks the city was buying. We got the specifications for the trash trucks from the manufacturer and made true scale templates of all the surfaces we would be putting art on. We collaborated with the client to develop the concept, featuring large images from around Kinston on the truck’s sidewalls. Also, the client wanted to have specific messages written on the back of each truck. The local imagery was either taken by Vicki Scuri Siteworks or furnished by the client to be processed by us and formatted into the artwork. The concept and imagery where developed and refined with a series of presentations and critiques. The result is a collaborative body of work that meets the goals and represents the desires of the client. We delivered scalable vector art to the client who was then able to give those files to the printer. Close communication throughout the process helped us realize this project.