For the London 2012 Olympic Games, British Airways painted 8 x A319 aircraft with my Golden Dove design. Doves are an internationally recognised Olympic symbol and were first used like homing pigeons to relay reports of the games to outlying villages in Greece. The aim was to transform the planes into looking like birds. The project was a big challenge as the design was complex and the time painting the planes had to be reduced to an absolute minimum. You can see a short video about me talking about my inspiration for the project HERE and a timelapse of the plane being painted HERE. There is also a link to some more drawings on my blog HERE

The first image is courtesy of Mark Kwiatkowski, the subsequent images show a bit of the design process. Photography and drawing was very important in helping me to understand the nature of birds, doves and feathers.

My ambition with this project was to get passengers to stop and rethink a familiar and ordinary object in a different way. This is the very essence of Ordinary Made Extraordinary.

The design is spray painted over computer cut masked sections. The paint was specially mixed to be a unique colour but also to be non metallic (aircraft regulations) so small glass beads are mixed into the paint to reflect light.

I still haven't flown on one, but if you do try and get a wing seat, so I am told.