Panel including Peter Maffay names Sebastian Bieler most creative artist for the MAN Tattoo Trucks
MAN has started the IAA Commercial Vehicles Motor Show 2014 with a world premiere: six “MAN Tattoo Trucks” were unveiled in front of Hanover Central Station. The spectacularly designed semitrailer tractors are the outcome of an international design competition entitled ”Can you make traveling works of art from songs? MAN kann.” The idea behind it was to find the person who interpreted song texts from Peter Maffay’s new album “Wenn das so ist” [If that is so] in the most fascinating way on a truck in terms of form and color.
”Each of the six trucks is unique. We are very honored that our songs served as inspiration for these rolling works of art. We would also like to praise the pros from smartart who painted the trucks,” enthused Peter Maffay. The MAN Tattoo Trucks will transport the stage equipment across Germany on his tour, which kicks off in early 2015.
The first prize of €10,000 went to Sebastian Bieler for his design. The panel judged the three best designs on color composition, artistic interpretation of the songs, visual effect, creativity, and workmanship.
Sebastian Bieler was born in Dresden and studied painting and graphic arts at Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. The strong influence of graffiti art can be seen in almost all of his designs: “I have painted cars with graffiti before, but this is the first time I have painted a truck. The song “Schwarze Linien” [black lines] matches my ‘free’ style like no other. Black lines actually make up a key part of my artistic work, but I’m fairly confident that Peter Maffay would interpret his song differently.”
Painting the MAN Tattoo trucks
In collaboration with the renowned designer Walter Maurer, Martin Dippel and his smartart team painted the MAN Tattoo trucks in an aircraft hangar in Fürstenfeldbruck, near Munich.
The painters also designed the famous BMW Art Cars with world-famous pop art artists.
The paint designers applied the winning designs using colourful acrylic paint. A high-gloss clear coat finish was put on top of the acrylic paint. A team of professional painters spent countless hours on each truck from July to mid-September. Several techniques were used to apply the motifs to the trucks, including normal spray painting, airbrushing, sponging techniques, stencilling and foiling and various painting styles with brushes, varnish techniques and graffiti.
Following the IAA Commercial Vehicles Fair, the MAN Tattoo trucks are travelling from Hanover to the MAN Truck Forum in Munich, where all visitors and guests will be able to admire the unique trucks.
