CIT students who wanted to take part in next week's Orange Wolves festival had to meet three criteria - their project had to meet a learning outcome, it had to be collaborative and it had to be brave.
A proud Fiona Dace-Lyn, director of CIT Technology and Design, says the students have delivered, in spades for the festival, to be staged in the heart of Canberra.
"Every area has gone above and beyond, really exceeding our expectations," she said.
"We told them to be brave and absolutely go for it. And they've done it."
City Walk in the CBD will be the place to be on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday when CIT graduating and other students show off their creativity in special exhibitions on six decommissioned ACTION buses aka the "orange wolves".
The buses and the work will be open for inspection in City Walk each day from noon to 10pm, with street food also organised by the CIT Students Association. And members of the public are urged to stop and come on board.
Special events will be held each night on City Walk, including a fashion parade of work by graduating students at 7pm on Tuesday and Schools Rock - the ACT school bands competition - on Wednesday evening.
Orange Wolves started with a $50,000 grant from the City Renewal Authority. Six decommissioned buses were handed on by Transport Canberra. Then, the students took over.
The Orange Wolves name for the festival was literally created by the marketing team putting a list of adjectives in one hat and a list of nouns in another and picking out a combination. But the random nature of the name also goes to the orange buses and the ferocity and fearlessness of the talent on show.
There will be six buses on display on City Walk. One has been dubbed, the Design Den with work by the graphic design students, including an interactive show reel that can be activated with a mobile phone scan.
The Night Rider bus will take passengers on a one-of-a-kind tour of Canberra, without moving from the spot, thanks to the ingenuity of sound production, interior design and media students. There will be six shows a night. Another bus's interior has been transformed into a magical garden by floristry and landscaping students.
Each bus has also been painted by students from Yurauna, CIT's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Educational Centre of Excellence. Stunning photographs by students are also displayed on the exterior of the buses. Another bus will be adorned with 5000 compact discs, tinkling in the breeze.
The festival has a theme of sustainability and that is especially seen in the work by fashion students. Julianne Abbot, head of creative and design industries, said CIT students had actually grown their own vegan leather to be made into outfits while also refashioning hotel bed linen into white shirts.
City Renewal Authority chief executive Malcolm Snow said CIT was successful in showing how the city could be a "more fun, welcoming and exciting place to spend time".
"The Orange Wolves project will bring something totally different to our city's public spaces and I am looking forward to seeing how the community interacts with these transformed buses," he said.
