Te Matapihi redesigned library card winners in the good books

The redesign of Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui and the rawa is rooted in the natural world – and the competition theme te taiao/nature was designed to reflect that.

The competition opened in June for two categories, 13 years and under and 14 years and over, with the winning artworks to feature on two new limited-edition library cards (2000 of each) – and the successful designers receive $100 Unity Books vouchers.

There was a lot of excitement around the competition with 256 submissions in total, from individuals, school classes, groups and siblings says Belinda Davis – Team Leader, Te Awe Library.

“We were thrilled to receive so many entries representing a broad range of ages and creativity, with so much effort, skill and thoughtfulness going into each one. This made choosing just one from each category difficult, but we’re delighted with our winners.

“Anyone who’s not already a library member will be able to choose from the new designs when they join up to be a member at Te Matapihi next year. We also can’t wait for Wellingtonians to see the rest of the entrants’ art on display when the new library opens to the public in March.”

The winning entries were Manu by Grant Buist (14 and over) and Wheke by Ollie Walker (13 and under).

Grant is a cartoonist and playwright who has had a Te Whanganui-a-Tara library card since he was seven. His inner seven-year-old is delighted.

Ten-year-old Ollie goes to Brooklyn School and has been a library member his whole life. He chose to draw a wheke (octopus) because they are his favourite sea creature – mostly because they are super weird and look like they should be a space alien.

Ollie designed his octopus with bold vivids on paper and drew it ‘library card’ sized to begin with, then upsized the octopus and added a book.

If you look closely the book says ‘Kia ora’ because Ollie thinks the octopus would know it’s important to learn some te reo if it’s going to grow up in Aotearoa.

Ollie thought he had created something pretty special, but was still over the moon to get the call that his design was a winner.

“When I heard that I had won I started jumping round the room and had the biggest grin ever. I can’t wait to get my own personalised card!”

The judging panel included representatives from mana whenua and the Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui project team, library kaimahi, and the Council’s Creative & Brand Manager.

Judging criteria included the use of the theme (te taiao), composition, colour, personality, and scalability to reproduce well when scaled down to library card size.