This, the PSV section of our competition, did not attract
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a large number of potential winners this year. Most of the designs were ruled out straight away.
Wrights of Ballymena entered a livery, for instance, which the judges said "looks like it comes from Plovdijc in Yugoslavia". "I don't think it works at all," said Hatton.
Bakers coach had "stripes everywhere" and bewildering "shapes that just don't mean anything", according to Hatton. "Messy and disjointed" was the overall view. Virtually all of the minibus designs were so awful they left the panel speechless. "I reckon that Phillipine jeeps have more going for them than this lot," said Hatton.
Goldrider's go-faster stripes were "more like a wiring diagram," said Hatton.
Part of the problem lies in the extremely awkward shapes which bedevil many PSVs, especially some of the minibuses. These shapes are sufficiently contorted as to make any form of neat livery nearly impossible.
The problems were compounded in many instances, said the judges, by operators' insistence in imposing completely unsympathetic stripes or blocks of colour on these awkward vehicles. The industry's current obsession with diagonal stripes, in particular, came in for heavy criticism, and many entries failed on this point alone, which was a pity as the colours in many cases were boldly attractive.
Few, they felt, had come to terms with the fact that PSVs have windows and doors. This was where Avon's beautifully