Those who know me well also know that I am almost (but not completely) freakishly into aviation. I have been since I was young, even though I was scared shitless of flying for the first time. I have flown as much and as far as my wallet would allow, and also earned a Canadian Private Pilot’s License. Also almost died in a forced low-altitude ditching into Lake Ontario when I had an engine failure 50 feet after takeoff.
Now, for someone who is also into photography and graphic design, this also means that my aviation interests can find a home there. My photo collection is full of images of planes of all types and sizes. And, about 10 years ago, I completed my poster masterpiece. It was in honor of the World Art color schemes that British Airways introduced, where there were a couple of dozen different tails, inspired by the artwork of the countries that British Airways served.
Each tail was recreated in CorelDraw using photographs as a tracing source. I worked on it on and off for 6 months, and gave up on the project twice because of what a pain in the freaking ass it was. But I always went back and said, this would look really cool when done, sucked it up, and finally finished.
The finished result is a 5 x 2.5′ laminated poster that has hung in every home I’ve lived in for the past 10 years. It always gets attention.
Unfortunately, because this was done in an old version of CorelDraw, getting it imported into Illustrator CS3 screwed up the fonts, gradients and color. So it looks kinda crappy but you get the idea.
The World Art tails were removed from British Airways because they did not unify the airline, which is perhaps a corporate answer. I think it had more to do with BA’s embarrassment that they had spent all this time and money, and Margaret Thatcher publicly commented that she thought they were ugly. Well, yes, some of them were but she didn’t have to say it. In any case, I have my ugly tails poster to remind me of brighter days. While I may not count on Ms. Thatcher as a guest any more, it’s still a nice piece.
In any case, for years I was kicking around the idea of a follow-up poster. It couldn’t fit anywhere into my schedule when I was working full-time and while my son Sage was young, but now that he’s sleeping regularly, and I’m on a more part-time work schedule, I can finally focus a little time here and there on it.
Imagine - a poster with just about every type of commercial aircraft currently flying, each one decorated with cool and colorful liveries from airlines around the world. That would be one hell of a poster.
I’ve built about 25 out of 80 aircraft so far, some moved over from the British Airways poster with some retrofitting. Here are 6 of them, the Canadian commercial aircraft collection (still debating on whether to add the Dash 6 & 7).
They are undecorated, as I want to have all of the aircraft built and laid out before I decide what airlines make the cut. I’ll add updates to my blog as I build new aircraft. I’ll also talk about the process of building the aircraft in vector-design programs such as Illustrator, resources for the color schemes & airline graphics, and how I plan to get everything lined up.