SKYWARD AUGUST 2015 (Part 1)
scan credits: not mine
Taking a ride on "Hope" over the sky
Ohno Satoshi
『JAL FLY to 2020 Special Coating Machine』commissioned in June.
The designer of airplane coats, Mr. Ohno
The idea of adding color nuance to his composition
An interview regarding days of work-production and free curiosity
Ohno Satoshi is in charge of producing an artistic design for a special airplane as part of the 『JAL Fly to 2020 Special Coating Machine』, which was commissioned in June. Furthermore, he also endeavors his own artistry skill in figure-making and drawing on top of his role as leader of a renowned group, 『ARASHI』. As a reputable artist, it’s his first time to deal with artistic design for an airplane. He’s sort of self-conscious to answer our question about his art-design this time.
「All I’ve got so far is my own self painted into either 『JAL 嵐JET』or『怪物くん』and it’s been pretty tough for me. Now that I’m in charge of the art-design as well. I was so surprised when they first talked to me about it. I was like ‘Are you sure you want me to do it?’ (laughs).」
What Mr. Ohno Satoshi is having in his hands is the picture of the special design displaying the picture of 『ARASHI』 members and the bold letters of 『FLY to 2020』. They are set in a colorful surrounding. The colors look vibrant and lively. As Mr. Ohno is staring at the picture, he laughs playfully, saying 「To tell you the truth, at first, I wasn’t that sure with this.」
「First, as the main theme for the design of this special airplane is the image of 『FLY to 2020』.Since Tokyo will hold the Olympic and Paralympic in 2020, I personally think of how Japan will evolve before that and I’m excited to see it. So, this is how I express my excitement as a “hope” for the future. I couldn’t really draw something straight to express “hope” since my drawing is often around surreal stuff and it’s stressing me out. I was like thinking, 'What is hope?'」
At first, Mr. Ohno could hardly move his pencil to draw something but during the days he was thinking about the theme of “hope”, the image of a flower occurred to him. What he paints on the body of the airplane is a lot of beautiful and colorful flowers that give a sense of growing and blooming life.
「While thinking of my own version of “hope”, strangely I wanted to draw a flower. At first, I planned to draw flowers around the picture of the members but I tend to get fed up with drawing the same thing over and over (laughs). That’s why I also drew Japan’s symbolic stuff such as “Mt. Fuji”, “the four seasons”, “person” evolving and facing the future, and other stuff.」
He often works with mono coloured drawing but this time, his canvas is an airplane fluttering in the sky. He decides to work with a lively and colorful design to make it enjoyable for people traveling over Japan or those looking up at the sky.
「Rather than using a pencil I purposely used colorful ones to make multi coloured drawings. Of course, I put the five of 『嵐』as well. At first, I was also planning to draw something on members’ heads but I guess I need to cancel it (laughs). Instead of it, I drew 5-coloured rainbow as members’ representative. Red is for Sho-kun (Mr. Sakurai Sho), yellow for Nino (Mr. Ninomiya Kazunari), green for Aiba-chan (Mr. Aiba Masaki), blue for me, and purple for Matsujun (Mr. Matsumoto Jun). After getting through distress and consideration, I’m so glad that I could finish my drawing. And now, I would love many people to see it.」
Mr. Ohno put his thoughts of the year 2020 into his design. 『JAL FLY to 2020 Special Coating Machine』along with the colorful and vibrant “hope” is now flying around the clear sky of Japan.
