Double Coin Imaging Awards

When towing company boss Brooke Bartle decided he needed a new colour scheme for his towtrucks, he had to do it quickly: His next truck was already in the paint shop!

It was five years ago – and Bartle, managing director of Rotorua Towing Services, Big Rig Rescue and Taupo Towing Company, had just sold his interest in Auckland-based Ace Towing to brother Che.

The Bartle family originally started out with just Rotorua Towing, running blue trucks. However, they’d subsequently bought Ace….which had yellow and white trucks – so the Rotorua Towing trucks (and the Taupo Towing trucks) were switched to the same branding.

On selling out of Ace, Brooke decided to change the R... ... 

Unsurprisingly, Rainbow Park Nurseries’trucks used to feature rainbows in their colour scheme – as a key part of the 45-year-old Ramarama-based company’s logos.

The mainly white trucks were brightened by a horizontal green stripe and bumpers, a green, red and orange rainbow that was part of the Rainbow Park Nurseries logo….plus a similar Rainbow Trees logo (yep, also featuring a rainbow), in three shades of green.

But times change, and a couple of years ago the business decided that its “moving billboards” – the company trucks that deliver over 1.5 million plants a year to retailers across the country – would be better employed promoting its core brand.

All of the pl... ... 

Call it fate, good fortune or just plain good luck, but when South Taranaki crane, Hiab and heavy-haulage transporter specialist Agtrans stumbled onto its unusual bright light blue, white-striped livery almost a decade ago, “it just stuck.”

Agtrans director Philip D’Ath explains: “It’s not a particularly awesome story, but when we first started in 2012 we had a Hino transporter that pretty much had that colour, with the two white stripes on it. 

“We (D’Ath and business partner Christian (CJ) Mahony) thought it looked alright, so carried on with it – and now it’s emblazoned across multiple vehicles. 

“Nothing highly technical or creative about it: It was jus... ... 

The inspiration for the sharp livery on the trucks run by Franklin company TDM Construction is an interesting mix of commercial and personal influences.

A couple of the icons on the company logo are pretty clearcut, straightforward: A digger bucket and a drainage pipe are cues taken from TDM’s civil construction and drainlaying business.

Then there’s the thistle icon: That’s all about the Scottish heritage of brothers Todd, Dean and Marc Black, who own and operate the company. 

The bright yellow and royal blue stripes – which are painted on plain white cabs – are also family-inspired: They’re the colours of the Mercer Rowing Club….which the entire Black family h... ...