I often post about mystery tapestries and other weavings, trying to identify the designer and/or weaver. Today I was asked about a mystery airplane tail fin design–one that was either based on a historical piece or designed with the pattern elements of a traditional Norwegian weaving.
Airline history enthusiast John Ainsworth is trying to track down a proposed design from the 1990s, part of the British Airways’ Utopia project. This was the proposed design:
John Ainsworth described the very interesting British Airways tail fin project in a letter to me:
As an enthusiast of aviation and design, I have spent the last several months building a research archive on British Airways’ Project Utopia — the airline’s global rebranding begun in 1997, in which the design agency Newell & Sorrell commissioned roughly fifty tail-fin designs from artists and craft traditions around the world to replace BA’s longstanding Landor livery. As the 30-year anniversary of the project approaches, I have been working through surviving information on the designs one at a time, contacting the artists where possible and trying to identify the source for the unattributed ones. Most of the online history is somewhat sterile, and many of the Phase 2 and Phase 3 designs — those that were in development in 1998 when the project was scaled back — never flew on aircraft and have been very thinly documented since. My research in the archives at the BA Museum has turned up little more than a couple of images and some passing references.
A pattern across the program is that Newell & Sorrell drew on named primary-tradition practitioners working from each of the regions BA served, with a strong preference for designs rooted in regional folk-craft and historical decorative-art traditions…
A page in the archived, internal BA development materials dated June 1998 shows a Boeing 757 mockup (attached) with a tail filled by what I believe to be a piece of Norwegian textile tradition with eight-petalled rose (åttebladsrose) motifs at the centers of the larger diamonds and smaller cross/diamond accents in the negative spaces… Other references in the BA archive material (Living in Utopia, November 1998) for Phase 3 of the project include “Together we have already identified 7 countries from which images may be selected to add to the portfolio, namely: Argentina, Spain, West Africa, East Africa, Thailand, UK Millennium and Norway.” and “produce and adapt the artwork for all new images including Norway” – indicating that the supplied image was a likely candidate that would be further developed to take it from raw source artwork to a fully aircraft-ready tail. The project was cancelled before that adaptation work was completed. This makes the Norway tail unique among the Phase 3 designs, where no candidate images or designs have been found.
This could imply that the BA / Newell & Sorrell team had identified an existing source piece — a museum object, a recognized pattern, or similar — rather than commissioning a fresh contemporary artwork in the manner of some other Project Utopia designs. The absence of an artist’s signature on the June 1998 mockup is consistent with the source being an existing piece adapted by the agency rather than a newly commissioned painting from a named studio or artist.
I didn’t recognize the specific rutevev design, nor was I able to find more information searching the Norwegian Digital Library nor the Norwegian Digital Museum site. Do any readers know about this British Airways design project or recognize the specific eight-petalled rose pattern?
John Ainsworth included interesting background on several of the other designs. A design from a Scottish tartan by Peter MacDonald, a traditional Scottish hand weaver, was used by British Airways, and Ainsworth obtained a photo of the fabric on which the tail fin was designed.
Ainsworth described some of his research on other tail fin designs from Project Utopia.
For context on the kind of sourcing Newell & Sorrell did, here are some of the designs I have been able to confirm so far through direct correspondence with the artists or their families:
Koguty Lowickie and Flowers of Mazowsze (Poland) by Danuta Wojda, drawing on the wycinanki (paper-cut) tradition of the Łowicz region. Wojda worked for nearly thirty years at Spółdzielnia Sztuka Łowicka, the regional Cepelia-affiliated folk-art cooperative. (real aircraft at https://www.airliners.net/photo/British-Airways/Boeing-757-236/8185)
Sterntaler (Germany) by Antje Brüggemann, a constructed (non-thrown) ceramic panel design from her studio in Bad Hersfeld, recipient of the Richard Bampi Prize — working within the German ceramic-art tradition. (real aircraft athttps://www.airliners.net/photo/British-Airways/Airbus-A320-211/167360)
Blomsterang / Flower Field (Sweden) by Ulrica Hydman-Vallien, the celebrated Kosta Boda glass artist, whose design for the tail incorporates Swedish folk motifs in her hand-painted glass-bowl manner. (real aircraft athttps://www.airliners.net/photo/British-Airways/Boeing-737-436/803539)
Delftblue Daybreak (Netherlands) by Hugo Kaagman, drawing on the iconic Dutch Delftware tin-glazed ceramic tradition; Kaagman’s own stated aim was “to use the traditions of the past and modernise them for the future” — which captures rather neatly what Newell & Sorrell were after across the programme. (real aircraft athttps://www.airliners.net/photo/British-Airways/Boeing-747-436/262269)
Vinger / Wings (Denmark) by Per Arnoldi, the Danish designer best known internationally for his DSB poster series and his public commissions for the Reichstag Berlin and the Copenhagen Opera House. (real aircraft athttps://www.airliners.net/photo/British-Airways/Boeing-757-236/198493)
Heraldic UK and Heraldic Borders (UK) by Timothy Noad, calligrapher and Herald Painter at the College of Arms, London. Unfortunately – the project was cancelled before these designs flew on actual aircraft, but designs exist in the BA archives.
Sonnet (England) by Hazel Dolby, drawing on the English calligraphic tradition. Unfortunately – the project was cancelled before this design flew on actual aircraft, but it exists in the BA archives.
Grand Union (England) by Christine Bass, drawing on the British canal-barge folk-painting tradition. (artist page and aircraft image athttps://www.christinebassart.com/british-airways-tailfin)
A Swedish design by Ulrica Hydman-Vallien was used by British Airways, and when I mentioned that she is one of my favorite artists, Ainsworth sent me photos of the glass on which her tail fin design was made, and a photo of her in front of her plane at the British Airways launch of the plane. Could there be anything more cool than having your design on a giant airplane?
It’s too bad the Norwegian-inspired tail fin was never realized.
John Ainsworth finished his letter with, “I hope you will agree that this design — the only one in the project I am aware of drawn from a Norwegian craft tradition — deserves to be properly documented while the people who know the tradition first-hand are still available to consult.”
I agree wholeheartedly. I love solving mysteries of provenance and giving credit to talented designers and weavers. Let me know if you have the answer or ideas for further research.