Double Coin Imaging Awards

Now here's a dramatic colour scheme transformation. From a distinctly, umm...interesting treatment dominated by a salmon shade….
To a stunning combination of black, red and grey – featuring curved and feathered stripes (which, from that description should be messy-as, but emphatically isn't) – that makes Onehunga-based Rock and Rubble a very worthy finalist in the PPG Transport Imaging Awards.
The trigger for the visual turnaround in the livery of the company, which provides cleanfill removal and tipping services in the Auckland region, was the recent expansion of its fleet.
It was a marked departure from the four-year-old company's way of doing business – having until then relied substantially on contracting other operators for its actual cartage requirements.
The salmon was originally used in the company's logo – and migrated from there to the bumper and lower cab of the company's 4x2 Isuzu Forward tipper…and eventually to the bodies and bins of its first heavy-duty truck, a Scania (which has since been sold). 
The logo also appeared on the bins of a Volvo FM run by N&J Wood for Rock and Rubble, earning it the nickname, "the Salmon Express."
Fleet colours weren't used on the Scania cab, which remained a standard Scania royal blue. 
But when, earlier this year, the company bought a pair of Kenworths – a new K200 and a secondhand T909 – the issue of a dedicated colour scheme took on new importance.
Rock and Rubble managing director Mark Geor admits that a salmon-pink K200 was completely out of the question: "That wouldn't have been a good look at all. Instead, we decided on a signature colour of Oolong Grey – an Audi shade I'd seen on a friend's car. 
"We wanted something that was different, yet would work with the earth tones of the work we do, and that colour suited nicely, especially on the bins. 
"Red worked as a contrast, over a black base, but after that we went in circles for a long while, getting the detail work right. It was either too wacky, too modern and Euro-style, or too much the traditional V-pattern often used on cabover Kenworths.
"In the end, with time pressing to get the K200 on the road, its driver, Blair Shearer went to Darryn Caulfield at Caulfield Signs in Rotorua, and workshopped ideas for a day, and this is what they came up with. 
"At one stage the grey was the more dominant colour in the middle of the stripes, with the red less prominent, but I think it works better the other way around, which is what we decided on.
"We worked primarily around the 909, because a design that suits a bonneted model usually goes even better with a cabover. At the same time, with the square cab of the K200 it's hard to make this sort of approach work without looking too busy, so there definitely needs to be a balance."
From Darryn Caulfield's perspective, the design came together relatively quickly: "The colours were nicely matched, and once we decided on the idea of the multiple curved stripes for the cabs it was just a matter of fine-tuning."
While the striping up front attracts immediate attention, the livery on the bins is no less impressive. Here, the grey dominates, by way of a central, gravel-effect pattern bordered by a ragged-edged grey – evocative of a quarry working face – above and below. The salmon has gone from the central logo, which now has grey words on a black base, with a red keyline.
The signwriting on the Kenworth cabs was carried out by Caulfield Signs, but the work on the bins was done in Auckland, by DJ Mellor at Sub Signs in Mangere. Mark Geor speaks highly of Sub Signs: "It's only a small operation, but the work and service is outstanding." 
The trucks were painted by Peter Murray Painters, Pokeno.
Geor is happy that the grey on the truck bodies and bins also holds up very well from a practical, day-to-day perspective: "The work we do inevitably means lots of dust and small knocks. The new scheme means the trucks still look smart even under pretty challenging conditions."