It’s official. Creativity has won the controversial public vote to choose the sign that will spread across the hillside near Wellington International Airport, welcoming tourists and travelers to the city. The airport is adjacent to the world-changing New Zealand movie studios of Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor. The sign-on-the-hill-by-the-airport started out as a homage and marker for the movie industry, but many locals weren’t chuffed on some of the possibilities, language being a tricky thing to get right. So it got put to a vote. Out of three final contenders, Wellingtonians have chosen the Saatchi & Saatchi creation ‘Wellington Blown Away’, a creative treatment of the capital’s name, with the last few letters whipped about by the city’s often-present wind (reportedly getting up to 100 kmph this week).
Blown Away dominated the shortlist for the final run-off (as posted a few weeks ago), and made short work of the other two options when it came to the crunch. Of the 33,027 votes cast, Wellington Blown Away won 18,862 – 57% of the vote. Congratulations to Matt Sellars and Ray McKay of Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland who got in touch with their inner Wellingtonianesss to create the design. Matt and Ray’s handiwork will be up for all to see from March next year. The beautiful Eye of the Taniwha design by Wellington tattoo artist Stephen Maddock came in second.
Congratulations also to Wellington Airport for embarking on this adventure. The “Wild At Heart” Airport has just won a prestigious architectural award for its new international terminal aka The Rocks, further underlying the city’s reputation as an innovative place to land.
