Toyota Dream Car Art Contest

In my office I have two posters that hang prominently. Both art projects from my sons, framed up and hung like they were important art things that I bought at an art store.

One is a goofy three headed monster thing made by Zacharie, the other is a random robot with a light bulb head, sneaker arm, and other bizarre things from Charlie.

I love that Charlie pic so much that I had it put on tshirts for us as a Christmas gift.

I LOVE watching my kids draw and create and free associate. The complete randomness they uncover in their mind, free from cynicism is a joy to watch.

One of my favorite things to do is just sit in the sunshine in our driveway watching Charlie scribble away with chalk beat boxing to himself.

It’s pure happiness.

If you’ve got kids like this, let their minds run wild with the 12^th Annual Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. It is a global contest run by Toyota in Japan, which aims to foster innovation and creativity in youth ages 15 and under, by encouraging them to think about the future of mobility and envision their “dream car”.

I asked Charlie to quickly sketch one out. This is what he came up with:

“It is an underwater invisible car that can go to the center of the earth,” he explained reaching for an orange pencil crayon. “It’s just a random idea.”

I love watching Charlie draw and create, and I can’t wait to see what your kids come up with tasked with thinking about the future of transportation and what a dream car might look like.

Each Toyota distributor around the world conducts a ‘local’ contest (in our case, Canada), and the panel of judges (hey, I get to be one!!) select the top nine designs (three in each age category of under eight, 8-11, and 12-15) to move onto the World Contest where their designs compete against others from all across the Globe.

Prizes for the nine Canadian winners include a CloudVR virtual reality kit, along with an entry as one of Canada’s representatives in the global contest.

This is the sixth year the contest is being held in Canada – and we’ve already had seven Canadian winners chosen as one of the top 30 finalists in the Global Contest! Here are last year’s top 9 in Canada:

Submissions can be created with any type of medium, such as paint, markers or crayons, but cannot be created digitally.

All artwork must be made on paper no smaller than letter (8.27 X 11.69 inches) and no larger than tabloid (11-12 X 16.5-18 inches) size paper and must include a coloured background.

Entries can be submitted until February, 2, 2018. The contest is open to all residents of Canada up to the age of 15.

To learn more and to enter the contest, please visit: www.toyota.ca/dreamcarartcontest