July and Ronja create a bus design for the anniversary

"More color in everyday life" was the slogan used by STOAG last school year to call for an art competition for the second time in grades 7 and up. The design for a STOAG bus should be drawn up in the class association or as an art group, which will then drive in the Oberhausen city area for at least a year.

Since then, many beautiful designs have been stacked up in the STOAG marketing office - colorful pictures in which balloons, cakes and happy faces appear as motifs again and again. And the number 125, because STOAG called for a bus design to match the company's 125th anniversary. "125 years: STOAG celebrates its birthday" was the motto of the competition.

There were no limits to the creativity of the students, but the motif had to be created manually and not on the PC and be suitable for later being printed on a special foil and then stuck on the bus by a specialist company. After all, the picture on the bus has to endure hundreds of bus washes.

Not an easy task for the jury

A jury made up of STOAG employees from various departments, the two chairmen of the Oberhausen youth parliament and advertising specialists, among others, selected the best draft based on previously defined criteria. "July and Ronja's motif quickly became one of the favorites and ultimately received the highest number of points," reveals Jill Wildenhayn from STOAG. "But it wasn't easy to make the selection given the multitude of beautiful pictures."

The jury selected a design by the Art-AG of the Theodor-Heuss-Realschule under the direction of Anne Fiedler. July and Ronja designed the happy picture and painted it on the 1m2 template. It shows both a good-humoured party company celebrating the STOAG anniversary and a huge green and yellow dragon. Strictly speaking, a Chinese dragon, which, according to the two 14-year-olds, looks particularly festive. They say they've always loved dragons, so it made sense to base the bus design around the dragon. And if you look around the decoration scene, dragons have played a role here for a long time. The two artists worked on their work for around a week. It was worth it.

Colorful contribution to the anniversary year

The STOAG bus with the beautiful motif will now be on the streets of Oberhausen for at least a year. But maybe longer, because the bus with the motif of the first competition can still be seen today. This year's dragon bus is a successful contribution to the STOAG anniversary celebrations in 2022.

Second prize goes to class 7c at the Bertha-von-Suttner-Gymnasium, while third prize goes to the 10-person art course KU3 at the Fasia-Jansen comprehensive school. All winning teams look forward to a check for the class fund. July and Ronja are also allowed to do a lap of honor on "their" bus.