Airbus A350F freighter: the livery designed by the public, now in flight

Airbus builds aircraft that connect points separated by vast distances. The A350F freighter’s livery came about through a similar connection of points, a meeting of minds. A graphic designer in Dublin, Ireland, and two brothers in Calgary, Canada, an ocean and a generation apart, imagined the new freighter in the same way: as a parcel, the very thing it carries.

Their designs, each built around the freighter's cargo, sprang from a shared enthusiasm for aviation and a mutual talent and passion for design. Airbus' open competition brought those ideas together and, in the spirit of the company itself, a multinational collaboration merged them into the single livery the A350F wears today.

More than 4,000 people entered Airbus’ open competition to design the A350F’s livery, and three of them won. In recent weeks, you may have spotted it. An aircraft that looks more than a little different from anything you’ve seen in the skies, its paintwork more reminiscent of a parcel than a plane. 

The livery was created by graphic designer John Feehan of Dublin and brothers Quinnten, then 16, and Ellisten Iversen, then 12, of Calgary, the winners of Airbus' open design competition. Four years on, their design is now flying: when the A350F takes off on a test flight, cameras follow it, and photographs and videos of the distinctive livery travel far beyond the fence line, shared by the people who spot it, film it and ask where that design came from.

"The concepts were similar but focused on slightly different elements, so they complemented each other perfectly," says Airbus Corporate Design Manager Cassian Koshorst, who spearheaded the integration of the two designs. 

The Airbus A350F livery design competition: open, public submissions

In September 2022, Airbus did something unusual with the first A350F: it handed the aircraft's livery to the public. The competition ran from 12 September to 28 November 2022 and drawing entries from around the world. The jury selected two remarkably similar submissions, and with Airbus' corporate design team, the two were merged into a single livery, unveiled with the winners at the Paris Air Show in June 2023.

Quinnten Iversen remembered doing the maths. "Statistically, the odds are low", he says. "It almost seems like a shot in the dark, but it goes to show that just raw creativity and passion for what you want to do can bring you far places. We made it."

The inspiration behind the A350F freighter livery: “A design that does what it says on the tin”

What should a freighter look like? The designers independently arrived at the same central concept: treating the aircraft like the very freight it carries. 

For the Iversens, the answer was waiting in plain sight. "The inspiration for this design was a packaging box," Quinnten explains. "We thought that there's nothing better for a freighter than what it's transporting. It really clearly communicates what the purpose of the aircraft is, but I still think it looks professional and fun."

In Dublin, John Feehan had reached the same conclusion on his own. 

His aim was "to try and make the plane look like it does what it should do. If it says it on the tin, it does what it does. So make it look like a package. And that's what freight's all about."

 The final livery wraps the A350F's fuselage in that idea: a parcel in flight, carrying its own contents label. Even the placement survived the merge. "I thought it was too far to the right to be in the box," Feehan says of one detail he was sure the design team would move. "But no, they loved it.”

Meet the winning aircraft livery designers

John Feehan is a graphic designer from Dublin, Ireland, who entered at the encouragement of his aviation-loving son. For him the competition was "a good challenge to try to think outside the norm" and "a unique opportunity to work with a leader in aviation". 

Quinnten and Ellisten Iversen are brothers from Calgary, Canada. Quinnten spotted the competition while reading aviation news. He described his concept to his younger brother one evening, and Ellisten, a plane-spotter and model collector, joined him on it. A student pilot when the pair entered, Quinnten has since earned his commercial pilot's licence and is ready to enter the industry whose aircraft he helped design.

For Ellisten, the competition changed the destination itself. "Initially, I wanted to be a pilot as well," he says, "but my experience with Airbus, and the mindset around problem solving and wanting to innovate, inspired me very much."The A350F, a major innovation programme in its own right, pointed him towards what lies beneath the surface he designed: he shifted his focus at school and is now pursuing a degree in engineering, aiming for the aerospace field through mechanical engineering or engineering physics.

From sketch to first flight

At the Paris Air Show, the winners saw their merged design revealed to the world. A year earlier, Quinnten says, he would not have believed he would unveil a livery he helped design at the Paris Air Show. In 2026 it became paint on an aircraft: the livery, carrying the winners' names on the fuselage, now flies on the first A350F as it works through its flight-test campaign.

Watching the aircraft fly, Feehan calls it "a feeling like no other". "When I see the culmination of everybody's collective work to make this thing fly today, and my name is on the side of it, it's icing on the cake." For Quinnten, it is "an incredible honour, a dream come true, to have my name etched into that sort of legacy". Ellisten needs fewer words still: "pure joy", and "magical". From a public competition to a flying aircraft in four years, the livery is a visible reminder that behind every Airbus programme are people, including, this time, three of its fans.

Did you know? The winners' names are painted on the fuselage of the first A350F, flying with the aircraft through its entire test campaign.

What is an aircraft livery?

A livery is the visual identity an aircraft wears: the colours, markings and designs applied to its exterior. Liveries identify the operator, carry the brand, and in special cases, like the A350F's, tell a story of their own. How a design becomes layers of paint on a 70-metre aircraft is a story in itself, told in our look inside the paintshop.

About the A350F

The A350F is the freighter member of the A350 Family, launched in 2021: a 111-tonne payload, capacity for 42 pallets and a range of up to 4,700 nm. It is currently in a testing campaign leading to certification. Full specifications and programme milestones live on the A350F freighter journey page.