Scheme Designers, Architects of Unique Paint Patterns
The paint designer seeks to emulate airflow and 'speak to speed' with a flowing design approach.
Scheme Designers combines the talents of its designers with the desires of the aircraft owner to create a unique paint scheme that emphasizes airflow and speed. (Photo: Scheme Designers)

Twenty-seven years ago, Craig Barnett, a pilot and civil engineer, launched Scheme Designers, a company that does something people may think is simple: designing aircraft paint schemes.

Many aircraft owners put their faith in the paint shop and a straightforward design with a simple base color and a few stripes. However, Barnett pointed out, “A lot of paint shops are not artistic, they’re contractors. They build what they’re told to build. But what you want and what you get are sometimes two things.” An aircraft owner might have a vision for what they want from their paint job, but, he added, “If you don’t give proper direction, you may get a fantastic outcome or their vision, their interpretation of whatever sketch you’ve given.”

Just providing a photo of a paint design isn’t sufficient, Barnett explained, because there is no guarantee the paint shop can replicate that accurately. “Some shops can,” he said, “but you don’t know until you pick up the airplane and then you don’t have a leg to stand on.”

What Scheme Designers has done, he said, is “opened people's eyes to possibilities.” And that doesn’t necessarily mean a complex design, but something that fits the aircraft, whether a light airplane, a helicopter, a business jet, or even an airliner. “People will have a design idea and see a [Jackson] Pollock painting and want splatters,” he said, “but they can’t understand how that will work. We take these dissimilar ideas people have and coagulate them into an idea that actually works on an aircraft and enhances the shape of an aircraft.”

Turning those ideas into a cohesive design isn’t just a matter of coming up with pretty drawings, however. Scheme Designers creates the design, based on the owner's desires, but also provides detailed specifications to the paint shop for proper application, including the thickness of stripes and proper spacing between various elements. “It’s properly articulated in terms of renderings and dimensionally correct with detailed dimension drawings and written specifications and a layout to the eighth of an inch for the whole aircraft,” Barnett said. “When you walk out of the paint shop and leave the specifications there, that is your contract for how it’s going to look.”

Naturally, Barnett recommends that owners contact the designer well ahead of scheduling the paint job. For most owners, painting their aircraft is something that happens rarely. “Creating a paint scheme is a process,” Barnett explained. “You want to take your time and think about it. You’re spending so much to paint it, we’re inviting you to guarantee you get what your vision is. It’s a very small investment.”

For customers who want more than a three-view rendering of what their airplane will look like, Scheme Designers has developed full-motion 3D photo-realistic renderings that show the paint scheme from any angle. The customer can play with different colors and view the rendering in various environmental conditions such as in the air, on the ground, and during the morning or evening. NBAA-BACE visitors can see the 3D rendering tool at the Scheme Designers booth (N2226).

As the designers behind many of the paint jobs seen on new and preowned aircraft (more than 16,500 airplanes and helicopters from a Vans RV-3 to a Boeing 747 during the past 27 years), Barnett and his team are uniquely suited to give advice on painting, and visitors might want to ask about trends in aircraft paint design and products. For example, while matte finishes are popular on cars, they easily attract grease and dirt, Barnett said, and are difficult to clean. "Fingerprints will ruin the look," he commented. "And especially with airplanes that create soot [turboprops and jets], it gives a surface that’s easy for soot to grab onto.” 

A better choice, if matte is desired, is a semi-matte clear coat because it doesn’t pick up as much dirt and oil. But for cleanliness and ease of maintenance, gloss and semigloss are still the preferred coating. 

Complex designs are also becoming less popular because they add considerable expense to the painting process. “It can easily double the cost of a paint job,” Barnett said. He still prefers and recommends the Scheme Designers look. “What we brought to the industry was a flowing design approach that emulates airflow and speaks to speed," he noted. "It’s still the most popular stylistic approach. And there are infinite ways to do that."