Global coatings manufacturer Mankiewicz has supported premium airline STARLUX and world-renowned Japanese artist
Hajime Sorayama in creating two masterpiece special liveries. The two Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, named AIRSORAYAMA
GOLD and AIRSORAYAMA SILVER, represent a unique fusion of special livery design and artistic masterpieces.
The two aircraft become striking flying masterpieces that showcase one of the aviation industry’s greatest strengths: Creating special liveries of this caliber requires careful consideration of various technical and creative factors. Achieving that is only possible when everyone involved shares the same vision from the very beginning.
The project began with STARLUX’s ambition to introduce the first non-traditional livery design in the airline’s history. To bring this vision to life, the premium carrier, known for its commitment to delivering a luxurious and forward-looking travel experience, partnered with renowned Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama.
Sorayama’s work has had a profound influence on contemporary art world. From his iconic hyper-realistic robotic women to Aerosmith’s legendary Just Push Play album cover, his art combines hyperrealism and elegance. His work has consistently explored light, reflection, and transparency, expressed through his unique aesthetic, making it a natural fit with STARLUX’s premium brand identity.
This creative vision was already evident at the outset of the AIRSORAYAMA project, when the airline and the artist unveiled the first design concepts.
Turning a Vision Into a Mission
Turning these design concepts into reality required the expertise of multiple partners. The first step was to define the two signature colors, SILVER and GOLD. These were developed collaboratively by the artist, the airline, and the color system specialists at Pantone. Once the SILVER and GOLD colors had been finalized, the Mankiewicz Asia team joined the project, including personal on-site support in Tokyo to capture the artist’s color expectations and align on the technical approach in detail.
“Developing such a distinctive color for an aviation coating requires a deep understanding of the customer’s vision, combined with close and continuous collaboration throughout the project,” says René Lang, Executive Managing Director Aviation at Mankiewicz. “That is the philosophy that defines how we work with our customers.”
Translating Art into a Functional Coating
Translating the Pantone color templates into a functional aviation coating that precisely matched the expected appearance while meeting the demanding performance requirements of the aviation industry standards relied not only on this close collaboration, but also on advanced coatings expertise.
The greatest challenge was that for the production of aircraft coatings, conventional metallic pigments were not suitable for this application, as they could affect radar transparency and might cause interference. “To achieve the desired liquid metallic appearance, we use pearlescent pigments instead of metallic pigments,” explained René Lang. “Physically, coatings formulated with pearlescent pigments interact with light differently than coatings containing metallic pigments. Despite this different optical mechanism, they allow us to achieve the desired liquid metallic appearance without affecting radar performance.”
The resulting coating solution therefore met two essential objectives: it accurately reproduced the specified GOLD and SILVER color shades while delivering the desired metallic appearance.
A System Adjusted for Highest Gloss
The coating system used for the project was a base coat / clear coat system, consisting of a color-providing base coat followed by a transparent protecting clearcoat. The metallic appearance was created within the silver and gold basecoats, which have been specifically optimized to improve processability and increase effect consistency across the large surfaces of the aircraft.
Especially within this newly developed color appearance, this optimization was essential to achieve the unique liquid metallic appearance while maintaining exceptional color and effect consistency over the entire aircraft.
The clearcoat provides the aircraft with outstanding UV resistance and enhances the finish with a wet-look effect that further accentuates the liveries’ distinctive liquid metal appearance.
The coating system was then applied to the two A350-1000 aircraft at Airbus in Toulouse, France. The AIRSORAYAMA GOLD livery was painted by the Airbus paint team, while the AIRSORAYAMA SILVER was finished by a paint crew of SATYS. Both liveries were executed with exceptional craftsmanship, high precision, and great attention to detail before the aircraft were officially delivered to STARLUX.