Winners announced for new library card designs

Published on 11 August 2021

Check it out – the winners of Whanganui District Library’s competition to design new library cards have been announced!

At a ceremony at the Alexander Library Te Rerenga Mai o Te Kāuru’s Alexander Lounge on Friday, 6 August 2021, the four artists behind the library card’s new designs were each presented with gifts and a library card featuring their own artwork.

The successful library card entries were created by Reina Jones, Sophie Gilchrist, Maia Ras and Kaitlyn Spencer.

Whanganui District mayor Hamish McDouall, Whanganui Regional Museum public programmes presenter Lisa Reweti, and Sarjeant Gallery education officer Sietske Jansma were the judges for the competition.

At the presentation, Mayor McDouall said the judging process was tough because of the quality of entries. From the initial 55 submissions, 20 were shortlisted before the final four were selected.

“One thing that really struck the judges was the number of designs that featured the iconic Kowhai Park octopus – so many in fact that we divided the entries into two categories, octopus and non-octopus!” Mayor McDouall said.

Two of the winning card designs feature the celebrated Whanganui playground creature – the other two depict Whanganui River scenes. Families outreach librarian, Becky Stanley, thanked the winners and invited them to be the first to activate the newly-designed library cards.

The updated cards are now available to new district library members or existing members when they renew their cards.