BVG in Berlin: Paint the Bus in shirt and chinos

A creative format in the middle of a working day rarely fails on the date. It fails on the question of whether anyone has to go back to their desk afterwards with paint on their trousers. At BVG people stood in shirts, polos and chinos in front of a complete city bus and sprayed it.

The starting point

Anyone who puts a team event into a normal working day plans for two things nobody thinks of when the idea comes up. Changing beforehand and cleaning up afterwards. As soon as the words spray can are mentioned, most people quietly count on both and strike the item off again before anyone has talked about the content.

That calculation starts from the wrong assumption. It assumes that a group lays out the surface from scratch and inevitably hits everything standing nearby. Exactly that part was already done at BVG before the first person stood at the bus.

The part the group no longer has to do

Before the date the bus is prepared, and this part takes longer than the event itself. Windows, edges and wheel arches are masked off. Cut stencils go where a clean shape is meant to stand later. The continuous pattern along the long side is laid out area by area, and the outlines of the large letters are already there before anyone fills them in.

For the planning that is the decisive point. What the group takes over on the day is the part that is fun and cannot break anything: putting paint into an area that is already bounded. Whatever lies next to it is covered. That is why the clothes stay clean, and why nobody has to plan an hour for changing and showering.

What the group did

On the day itself there is spraying, nothing else. In the photo nobody wears work clothes. People work in the same clothes they went to the office in that morning, plus blue overshoes and gloves. Whoever wanted to reach the top row stood on an upturned drinks crate.

That answers a question that is rarely asked openly when the idea comes up: whether you have to get ready for the event. Here the clothes were the same as in the office, and height was the only aid anyone needed. Anyone who wants to put the date into a working day has thereby settled the two points that otherwise speak against it.

What was standing there at the end

At the end the bus was painted continuously on both long sides. One side carries a camouflage pattern in light blue, red and black, above it a white stripe with the yellow lettering Welcome BVG. On the other side stand large yellow letters with a black outline on a purple cloud, above them the lettering BVG. At each end sits a yellow cartoon figure in the shape of a bus.

A vehicle of this size shows two things at once that a canvas cannot. From a distance you recognise one closed motif, up close the individual handwritings within it. At BVG both came together because the structure was there beforehand and the paint was added on the day.

Frequently asked questions about this project

Does the team have to change clothes for a spray event?

Not at BVG. In the footage people stand at the bus in shirts, polos and chinos, plus overshoes and gloves.

The reason lies not with the people but with the setup. Everything that is not meant to be sprayed is masked off beforehand, and the areas the group fills are already outlined. Spraying is done from a short distance onto a vertical surface, and far less goes astray than most people expect. That is the difference to formats where the work is done on the floor and everyone kneels over the paint. At the bus you stand upright in front of it, the can points away from the body, and what gets hit is the surface in front of you. Overshoes and gloves are enough protection. For you that means you can put the date into a normal working day without organising changing rooms beforehand and planning time for cleaning up afterwards. If you still want to be sure, tell us beforehand who is coming straight from a client meeting or has to go into one afterwards. How much additional protection is laid out depends on that.

What happens before the date so that a surface of this size gets finished?

The bus is prepared. Edges and windows are masked off, stencils go into place, and the outlines of the motif are there before anyone arrives.

This preparation is the reason a vehicle the length of a bus can be finished in one session. A group laying out an empty surface of this size from zero does not get through in the time available, and the result becomes uneven. Conversely it becomes a colouring template if too much is prescribed. So we lay out structure and outlines and leave colour, areas and the free spots open. What is visible at the end is therefore decided on the day, even if the frame is there beforehand. At BVG you can see that in the letters: the outline was set, the fill came from the group. One thing you have to plan for: we need access to the vehicle or the surface before your actual date. Tell us early from when the space can be used, then the preparation lies outside your event.