Train Design by Kids: “All on board the Technicolor Zoo”
27 Dec 2007 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Features, Japan
While waiting on your commuter train, a wagon neatly decorated all over with crayoned swinging monkeys, grazing elephants and prowling snakes pulls into the station. Is the children’s zoo in town? Far from that! This recently happened for real on the Odakyu Line. PingMag got curious and asked them what this was all about: These colourful kid’s illustrations on the train are the result of a design contest. Today PingMag tells you more about this wonderful idea to put a little colour into the rat race of Tokyo.
Written by Ryoko
Translated by Kevin Mcgue
In commemoration of their 80th anniversary, Odakyu Railway held a “Train Design Contest” to collect drawings from children all over Japan. At the conclusion, two of the submitted works were used to decorate actual trains. We contacted the PR department at Odakyu to learn more:
We wanted to create a railway that is kid-friendly, and also deepen the communication with kids. So we held this contest, which also encouraged the involvement of the kids’ families, says the Odakyu spokesperson.

A poster in a train announcing the contest…

… and more info in the train station.
Then, the contest started this July: Designs were collected from children elementary school age and younger, under the theme of “Our Dream Train”. Submissions were accepted during students’ summer holidays, and lots of creative works by ‘young and upcoming artists’ were sent in. Within two months, 2,511 submissions made their way to Odakyu!

Oh! I want to ride that train - such a natural mood enhancer.

Yuichi Kimura, an illustrator of children’s books, was the special guest judge for the contest.
Judges for the contest included university professors - and children’s books illustrator Yuichi Kimura - to go through all these amazing colourful creations. In the end, eighty designs were short-listed, and among these, awards were given to eight:




Finally, two drawings were selected to be applied onto actual wagons: Nanako Kato’s drawing of many happy animals on a bright yellow background, and Kazutera Maehira’s colourful and dynamic picture of Mount Fuji.


On the 17th of last month, Odakyu held an awards ceremony and also unveiled the newly decorated trains (and cheering them with lots of bubbles.) Ten children, including the two winners, were honourably mentioned by judges, Yuichi Kimura and Masanori Mizunuma of Takaratomy, and all the parents joined proudly.

Winner Nanako Kato said that she drew her design to express the fun of riding trains with others, and Kazutera Maehira explained that he drew some scenes of the town around Ebina Station. Children’s book illustrator Yuichi Kimura commented:
There were so many wonderful designs that the judges really had a difficult task. These two were especially attractive and uplifting designs. The drawings express their feelings in a direct way and, by looking at them, it makes me wish to draw like that!”

At the unveiling ceremony, the train, which was decorated on both sides with the winning designs, slowly pulled out from a large garage into a shower of bubbles that was activated by the children’s signal. When the little designers finally got to see their work up close, they were beaming with excitement and pride.

And the train is not only decorated on the outside: Inside, you can see many of the other submitted works on display. If passengers look at these bright drawings on their way to work, it puts instantly a smile on their faces. Since so many use this train every day, word is spreading quickly.



Simply lovely! The kid’s train designs will be on the Odakyu Line between Shinjuku and Shin-Matsuda and the Tama Line between Shin-Jiyugaoka and Karakida until the end of March, 2008. Watch out for these!
28 Comments
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simply stunning!
Posted by: plue on December 27th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
This is so great, we usually associate the train with so many negative things (gropers/drunks/crowding), wonderful the kids can give us a break from all that :)
Posted by: Mike on December 27th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Beautiful idea
Posted by: Eirua on December 27th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
This is one of many reasons u miss Japan
Posted by: MaryAnne on December 28th, 2007 at 12:33 am
i love pingmag!!!
from China…
Posted by: yu: on December 28th, 2007 at 12:40 am
New York city transit has a similar program - but instead of children with crayons they have urban gangsters with spray paint cans. Very cool idea and great pics!!
Posted by: Shawn on December 28th, 2007 at 4:56 am
What a lovely idea, I want to see more trains like this…. and like the last commentor, would love to see some graffiti trains….
Posted by: ANNA ANTONIADES on December 28th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
That’s just amazing! Don’t know what to say more :-).
Posted by: monohate on December 28th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
i want to ride on this train! :3
Posted by: may on December 28th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
This really brought a smile to my face, it’s great to remember that design doesn’t always have to be about perfectly-rendered visuals! This sounds sappy, but the happiness of the drawings is just so contagious!
Thanks Ryoko and Kevin for featuring this!
Posted by: shermeen on December 28th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
I just saw one of these train in Machida station. They are very cute
Posted by: Michael on December 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
dang those kids are good
Posted by: angellesmell on December 29th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
On the look out for these trains, those kids are super stylin’.
Bringing brightness and joy to the city through creativity is always amazing no matter what age the creators.
Thanks Ping!
Posted by: TOKYOMADE on December 29th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Is like a graffiti but more cool and made it by kids that is amazing
Posted by: JMSV on January 3rd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Wow, maybe they should paint our trains next, because our trains are UGLY.
http://www.dwaynecharrington.com/
Posted by: Dwayne Charrington on January 7th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
wow! supercool!
…almost as good as NYC transit in the eighties.
nah, better!
Posted by: ben on January 10th, 2008 at 11:53 am
[...] train wrapped with kids drawings source: notcot [...]
Posted by: train wrapped with kids drawings « innovation inspiration information on January 21st, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I like this idea. Very refreshing from the norm.
Posted by: Siggy on January 22nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
[...] should follow suit- check out the winning designs and the grand reveal (amidst bubbles!) at PingMag. Filed under : Shiny new thingsBy admin On January 24, 2008 At 4:02 pm Comments : [...]
Posted by: PengiWear » Children’s trains on the Odakyu Line on January 25th, 2008 at 5:02 am
thats wonderful, great job =]
Posted by: Joanne on February 21st, 2008 at 12:12 am
THIS IS TRULLY AWESOME!!!
check out our trains
http://www.allcitystyle.com
Great stuff
Klim
Posted by: Klim on February 21st, 2008 at 11:12 am
[...] es un articulo en el que he estado pensando desde los últimos meses, desde que leí un articulo bastante interesante acerca de una cierta forma de “graffiti” legal en los trenes de [...]
Posted by: Hemisferio-Urbano - Graffiti y Street Art Internacional y de Guatemala » Blog Archive » El por que los Japoneses van un paso adelante on February 27th, 2008 at 3:59 am
[...] es un articulo en el que he estado pensando desde los últimos meses, desde que leí un articulo bastante interesante acerca de una cierta forma de “graffiti” legal en los trenes de [...]
Posted by: Hemisferio-Urbano - Graffiti y Street Art Internacional y de Guatemala » Blog Archive » El por que los Japoneses van un paso adelante on February 27th, 2008 at 3:59 am
its a nice encouragement for the kids.fun with work.
tayaru(india)
Posted by: tayaru on April 21st, 2008 at 7:44 pm
[...] Cute [...]
Posted by: Random Random « somethingXY on January 11th, 2009 at 7:03 am
[...] While waiting on your commuter train, a wagon neatly decorated all over with crayoned swinging monkeys, grazing elephants and prowling snakes pulls into the station. Is the children’s zoo in town? Far from that! This recently happened for real on the Odakyu Line. PingMag got curious and asked them what this was all about: These colourful kid’s illustrations on the train are the result of a design contest. Read the full story>>> [...]
Posted by: Kevin Mcgue - Tokyo-Based Journalist & Filmmaker » Train Design by Kids: “All on board the Technicolor Zoo” on March 3rd, 2009 at 11:20 pm
[...] aside titled ‘Japan Trains Feature Children’s Drawings on Exterior’ dated 3/13/09 Last year, Odakyu Railway held a “Train Design Contest” to collect drawings from children all over Japan. A…. [...]
Posted by: Tomorrow Museum » Archive » Japan Trains Feature Children’s Drawings on Exterior on March 14th, 2009 at 3:42 am
[...] out these awesome kid-designed commuter trains in Japan! In 2007, when Odakyu Railway was looking for a way to include families and children into [...]
Posted by: Train Design by Kids at Welcome to Bunch! on April 9th, 2009 at 5:17 am