In the world of aviation, where engineering often overshadows artistry, Edmond Huot has carved out a rare and influential space. As chief creative officer and founding partner of Forward Studio, he is celebrated for transforming the rigid fuselage into a canvas for storytelling—each livery a carefully crafted identity that carries culture, history, and commerce across the skies. From startup carriers seeking a bold visual debut to heritage airlines safeguarding their legacy, Edmond’s work demonstrates how design at altitude can move beyond mere aesthetics to become a lasting emblem of connection and distinction.

By: Peter Clark, CEO, Forward Studio

In the rare space where aesthetics meet aerospace, Edmond Huot has built a career as one of aviation’s most distinctive creative voices. Internationally recognized for his pioneering airline livery designs, Edmond has spent decades transforming aircraft into flying symbols of culture, commerce, and craft.

As chief creative officer and founding partner of Forward Studio, his portfolio spans startup carriers like Northern Pacific Airways to heritage names such as Island Air. For Edmond, the fuselage is more than a painted surface—it’s a narrative medium. “When you design a livery, you’re shaping a national signature, a company’s promise, and a brand’s invitation to journey,” he says.

Storytelling at Altitude
Edmond’s instinct for narrative was seeded far from any runway. Growing up on a farm in Midwestern Canada, he spent hours assembling model aircraft—Boeing 747s, McDonnell Douglas DC-10s—before taking them into the fields to stage elaborate airborne dramas. The imagined cabins teemed with characters and dialogue; the plots often ended in cinematic crashes, inspired by the disaster films of the 1970s.

That early storytelling impulse now shapes his approach to airline branding: every aircraft is a stage, every journey a story in motion.

Culture in the Details
His process often begins with cultural immersion. For Island Air’s rebrand—a Hawaiian regional airline once owned by Oracle’s Larry Ellison—Edmond’s team collaborated with local entrepreneurs, artists, and historians. Sacred symbols like the lei niho palaoa and the woodblock-inspired graphics of Dietrich Varez informed the visual language.

“In Hawaii, an aircraft is more than transport,” he says. “It becomes a cultural link between islands and people, time and place.”

Guarding Against “Blanding”
The airline sector, like many industries, has embraced a design trend critics call “blanding”—flattened, simplified identities that increasingly look alike. Edmond warns against sacrificing distinction for fashion. He cites Air France’s careful evolution of its winged seahorse emblem as a model of modernizing without erasing history.

“Rebranding isn’t erasure—it’s refinement,” he says. “You elevate what’s essential and reframe what’s dated.” Through subtle palette shifts, typographic precision, and symbolic cues, he works to ensure a brand’s cultural DNA survives the refresh.

Design Under Constraint
Aircraft liveries differ from most branding projects in that they are shaped by rigorous technical requirements. Regulations, aerodynamics, weight limits, and visibility standards all define what’s possible. Certain parts of an aircraft can’t be painted; others must meet strict legibility across weather and lighting conditions.

“Aircraft design lives at the intersection of storytelling and aerospace,” Edmond explains. “You’re designing within a blueprint—every detail has to serve a function.”

His black-and-white scheme for Northern Pacific Airways was both aesthetic and strategic, drawing on Alaskan motifs from snow-covered mountains to the green-purple shimmer of the aurora borealis.

A Stand for Distinction
In recent decades, the “Euro White” minimalism trend has swept the industry. Edmond isn’t opposed to restraint—he’s opposed to uniformity. “Minimalism can be meaningful,” he says. “But a blank canvas isn’t a story. A brand should still be recognizable in silhouette, even from the tarmac.”

His designs favor streamlined forms anchored in symbolism, national cues, and a clear rationale—ensuring each aircraft speaks with its own voice.

Aircraft as Ambassadors
Edmond sees every aircraft as a form of soft power. “When a plane lands on foreign soil, its livery is already speaking on behalf of its country,” he says. “It’s diplomacy in paint.”

That belief informs not only his design work but also his role as a speaker, juror, and mentor, advocating for livery design as both a cultural and technical discipline.

Leaving a Lasting Impression
Aircraft move quickly, but their impression can linger. “Even if you glimpse it only for a second through a terminal window, a great livery can make you feel something—about where you’re going, or where you’ve come from,” Edmond says.

It’s a fleeting canvas, but one capable of sending a message across the world. And that, for Edmond, is why design at altitude matters.

Edmond Huot is the chief creative officer of Forward Studio, where he leads the New York–based firm’s global branding practice, focusing on the airline, aero, and transportation sectors. A true avgeek at heart and originally from a small town in Canada, Edmond started his career in the early 1990s. What began as a boutique graphic design shop grew and morphed over the years into a multifaceted branding practice focused on helping a range of corporate and institutional clients reimagine their brands. In 2007, Edmond moved to the United States, where he has turned his childhood fascination with aviation into his career. He has worked on a wide range of airlines around the world, from Hawaii to Alaska to sunny California, focusing on their brand concepts, passenger experience, and liveries.

His projects span from large global airlines, such as digital campaigns for Singapore Airlines, to ground-up brand, naming, and livery programs for startup Northern Pacific Airways. Other noteworthy projects include the rebranding of Hawaii’s Island Air in preparation for its sale to Oracle founder Larry Ellison and transforming regional mobility on the eastern seaboard with seaplane operator Tailwind Air. Outside of aviation, Edmond has also worked on many other brands, including TD Bank, Honda Cars, and Experian, to name just a few.

The core of Edmond’s design philosophy centers around a deep respect for how airlines are cultural icons for their communities, nations, and the traveling public. He is committed to creating brand experiences that are authentic and resonate deeply with people. Storytelling is central to his design approach, and he uses a wide array of elements to express an airline’s identity and values effectively.

As a leading livery designer, Edmond has been featured in a range of top-tier news and media publications, including Business Insider, The New Yorker, CNET, The Points Guy, GDUSA, Print magazine, and Simple Flying, and has been a guest on AIGA’s Design Podcast.

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