The Brief:
Create successive trade and public campaigns across multiple sectors, sub brands, formats, channels and platforms, that resonate with FIA’s diverse audiences and deliver uplifts in participation, web traffic and sponsorship.
An interesting challenge
When I first joined Ouno Creative back in 2013, they already had two consecutive airshows under their belt. Over the coming years I would find myself working on five of my own.
Whilst the work was varied and widespread, covering both digital and print disciplines, the requirements each year remained the same.
The challenge then was how to reinvent the show each year to keep both attendees and exhibitors interested, engaged and most importantly coming back each show. So how do you update a show which remains effectively the same each year?
A different view
Early on in the development of the 2014 show I took ownership of two particular components of our airshow work, these were the lengthy A-E regulations document and responsibility for integrating motion graphics and 3D.
Before I joined the company, Ouno had no internal capability for 3D work and had hired freelancers for those tasks. With myself now employed there, the company was eager to see how they could integrate both motion graphics and 3D into the growing digital side of FIA’s requirements.
The A-E regulations document was a very large and complicated interactive PDF, because of that this piece of work fell to me in subsequent years due to my familiarity with it. This eventually grew to A-F regulations with Ouno relying on me to continue to deliver the complex document each year.
Whilst I joined a little late to incorporate my motion graphics into the 2014 show, 2016’s airshow saw it become a focal point with the animation of the primary heart smoke trails design being featured throughout their digital media.
An ever changing market
The first few airshows I worked on had a split between public and trade facing campaigns, with the former focused on attractions and the latter designed around the industry sectors.
However, the public weekend days began to face backlash due to their reduced flying displays owing to several accidents at other airshows increasing restrictions on what could be flown over land. This led to the public days being axed all together in 2019 to focus the show entirely on its trade side.
This shifted our approach towards campaign design and the sectors themselves became the focus. 2018’s show was the first time they incorporated their new airbridge logo which was designed for their upcoming permanent exhibition centre. This was combined with my 3D work to visualise the idea of airflow testing as the basis for the campaign.
Similar but not too similar
2020’s campaign brought with it a new set of challenges for me. The focus was once again on the various platforms the airshow covers however the client wanted to ensure that they weren’t seen to be showing favour towards any one vendor.
This meant whatever we put forward as the defence or civil aircraft for example, had to be both modern looking but also generic enough not to be seen as something from Airbus or Boeing. As my 3D work was going to be the centre point this time, I had to come up with these concepts myself.
Initially I looked at existing models from vendors, however any futuristic aircraft from places like Turbosquid were too far in that direction, sci-fi rather than the next thing in aviation. So instead I had to take a look at concept aircraft from various vendors, identify common traits and incorporate those design elements into my own custom aircraft. Whilst some were amalgamations of parts from other 3D models, the defence aircraft was entirely my own design. I ended up creating two, one more stealth bomber influenced and one closer to the Eurofighter Typhoon, the latter being chosen for the campaign itself. These were rendered with multiple passes and effects which were combined in photoshop afterwards to create the final campaign visuals.
The world stands still
2020 saw the world dealing with a global pandemic and almost every public event suffered.
The airshow was no exception and 2020’s show ultimately never took place. With budgets tight from lost revenue, the decision was taken to re-use the distinctive 3D platform designs I had created for the previous campaign. An updated overall look was created featuring a digital feel to emphasise the ever growing technology sector and the orange highlight colour was introduced to compliment the usual FIA blue.
The Result
Farnborough International Airshow has become one of my most featured projects in terms of my work being up for all to see.
From public banner adverts to animated visuals on the big screens during the show, it’s been amazing to watch my work come to life and feature so heavily.
The repeat deliverables provided a unique opportunity to revisit work and improve each year whilst creating new and exciting campaigns for each airshow.