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Road Show

andrea kantelberg on five Totalline Transport trucks roaming through Toronto until December 15. 416-363-6444. Rating: NNN


when local trucker uwe petro-schke, owner and president of Totalline Transport, won the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s business achievement award for 2000, he decided it was time to give something back to the industry.Something that might help counteract some of the unsexy stereotypes about truckers that bring to mind exploding tires and Jimmy Hoffa.

Something like trucks painted with works of art to create a roaming art gallery.

So after rejecting a couple of proposals as too tacky (one company suggested painting the trucks with the slogan “King of the Road”), Petroschke asked Imagineer interior designer Andrea Kantelberg, who had never done a large-format graphic project, to create designs to be painted on the sides of five of Totalline’s trucks.

At a time when taxicab hubcaps sport ad imagery, it’s easy to be cynical about Petroschke’s motivation. But a sneak peek at the finished trucks at a secret location in Mississauga reveals the finished products to be, simply, beautiful.

Each of the five 18-wheelers is painted white with black, magenta and cyan, with images corresponding to one of five words: dream, awakening, surrender, freedom and destiny. Is it branding or is it art?

To me it looks like a gallery on wheels, stimulating people who are stuck in traffic.

The trucks are driving around Toronto until Friday, then hitting the road throughout Ontario and Quebec.

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