The first of Auckland Transports wrapped trains, AM661, appeared around July 17th 2019. Designed by Flox and Trustme, the wrap incorporates the track safety message “Look Both Ways”.

To quote Flox:

The artwork here on the train is all about that safety message – Look both ways So the piece itself is a collab between myself and another artist, Trustme throughout the piece you’ll notice that there’s a flock of flying wax-eyes and there’s a bunch of geometric forms in there as well to really pay homage to the urban versus nature kind of theme and you’ll notice the different stances that they’re in, they are actually looking both ways so again it’s all meant to bring a greater awareness to their safety around the barrier crossing.

The vibrantly colored design features a flock of flying Silvereyes, a small common New Zealand native bird also known as Wax-eye, or by it’s Maori name Tauhou. This train wraps show the birds in a variety of flying stances looking left and right to portray movement and direction. Wax-eyes have a distinctive white rings around their eyes which again references the safety message of eyes open, pay attention and look both ways.

In Flox’s signature stencil style the design consists of both geometric and organic shapes to show both movement and homage to urban vs nature.

Designed to attract the attention of pedestrians at level crossings the text message “Look Both Ways” emphasizes AT’s Look Both Ways concept and is part of the wider “Be Track Smart” theme. As AT Metro’s Stacey van der Putten puts it, “We want to get the message across that two tracks can mean two trains. Our electric trains can travel at speed and are very quiet.”

Find where AM661 is on the train network

This train continues to run with the design from Flox and you can find out exactly where it is by looking at the Find My Train page:

Other Flox art

Flox has done lots of work around the city including the Resene “kiwi art trail” outside Britomart where Flox created the “Floral Mash Up”

Associated links

NZ Train graphics – Look both ways

YouTube video from Auckland Transport featuring Flox along with AT Operations Performance Lead Luke Clarke, and Chris Cordwell AT track infrastructure lead.

Flox website

With her showroom on Great North Road in Grey Lynn this is the Haus of FLOX’s website.