National Express Competition
I entered a competition and won…
The iconic white National Express coaches are instantly recognizable everywhere in the UK – but one vehicle within its fleet is now guaranteed to make people take a second look due to the amazing abstract design on one side. This is the creation of a young Lithuanian born artist, Sergej Komkov, now based in Hull and winner of the company’s first Driving Design competition. Up in Hull, an email dropped into artist Sergej Komkov’s mail box. He recalls “I found out about the competition purely by chance. A friend works in a creative arts agency. She saw the details and passed it to me saying, ‘have a look at this. I took a look and thought that I had just the idea available.”
He continues, “It was an idea I had been working on for a long time. It was inspired by the Russian constructivism style. I am deeply influenced by both British post-war art and deeply rooted in USSR’s culture – socialist realism. I gather my inspiration from Russian artists such as Alexander Rodchenko and Liubov Popova. Architecture, aesthetics of line, geometry and symmetry are the elements which are a leitmotif in my work. I had been taking a lot of pictures of Hull architecture and manipulating them to change them into a more abstract, Russian constructivism style but they were still recognizable as a local building.
The picture I used was Anlaby Hall Road Flyover in Hull.. I manipulated the flyover into an abstract design in black, white, blue and red. I improved it slightly making it flow, and present an image of Hull, which would fit nicely on a coach. I downloaded the template and added my design, plus a bit about myself. I didn’t think anything more about it.”
