Kevin 'Kilo' Thomas
"Old Crow"
Touching upon several personal passions of mine, a quick project to honor a legend from aviation history dovetails into a larger branding endeavor.
As communications technology ironically makes interpersonal relations less personal, what started as an artistic ambition resulted in something of a social renaissance for me, as writing to family and old friends has unlocked a special kind of joy I didn’t realize I was missing. What follows is a brief account of my journey to-date.
Background
At the time he passed away at the age of 102, C.E. “Bud” Anderson was the last surviving “triple ace” of World War II, an iconic figure in the world of historic aviation and by all accounts, a humble, forthright man. Being custodians of one of his iconic “Old Crow” P-51 Mustangs, the American Honor Foundation, a nonprofit collection of historic American warbirds and helicopters, wanted to pay homage to Bud at the Mecca for aviation enthusiasts: the Oshkosh Air Show. Being an enthusiast of history and aviation as well as a friend of the Foundation, when the idea was floated (albeit mere weeks before the event) I offered to design their livery for this occasion, to honor both the man and the iconic warbird.
The Old Crow
While the creation of the artwork was reasonably straight-forward, being a historic project, I wanted to get the details as correct as I could. There were several different aircraft to bear the Old Crow name, and as each was hand-painted there were a number of versions of the lettering, numbering, and markings. I collected as many photos as I could, many from Bud's own website, as well as sources as diverse as model kits and the original inspiration for the name—a bourbon bottle. After a good deal of tweaking and fussing, I came up with a good average for the iconic lettering, tail numbers, and the text for the rest of the airframe, and then embarked on a similar exercise for the squadron logo.
The Foundation
In the course of putting together the shirt, I’d come up with a few sketches to simplify the Foundation’s somewhat busy and disjointed logo. After the rush to get the original work was done, I returned to the logo because I hate to leave a good idea unexplored. I took the original elements of the design—text banners and the skull with the aviation cap and goggles—and flattened and simplified them down to make a more striking, recognizable silhouette while retaining the original spirit of the design. I referenced numerous military, state, and honorific insignia to pull together a stable of ideas to reference the pillars of aviation and honor, and then, to spark the imaginations at the Foundation, I created a portfolio of example applications for the new logo to showcase its versatility and boldness.
Reception
By all accounts, the shirt design was a big hit at Oshkosh, and there were enough requests to merit an immediate second round of printing. As for the foundation branding, this is, hopefully, just the beginning.
Letterlocking
"Calligraphy" by Jane Sullivan
"The Lost Art of Handwriting" by Brenna Jordan
Discover Oshkosh | EAA AirVenture
American Honor Foundation
To Fly and Fight | Bud Anderson