Thursday, May 06, 2010

The Boy Who Stole Planes :: Rolling Stone Mag

tomer: meet Colton, an authentic teen outlaw of the modern world. grew up in a poor area in Washington, zero prospects, his eyes set to the sky as private jets of millionaires zip above to the other side of town. so, naturally he broke into their summer mansions and used their internet to teach himself to fly via flight simulators. by 17 he was stealing their airplanes for joy flights, usually landing at some field with impressive skill. has a knack for never getting caught and leaving funny notes to the police. so, naturally he becomes a legend, a T-shirt, a facebook page. join his 30k strong fan group. he is still in hiding.


the first hit at this double spread was going for bold and graphic a-la propaganda poster: a fugitive celebrated and mythologized by the 'people'. Colton is wearing a bandana and 'riding' the plane like a horse-- in the spirit of a wild-west 'Jesse James' idealized outlaw persona. this was shot down by the magazine, they wanted a more realistic approach.



a landing site, with his first crashed plane. only he never crashed a plane since his landings where impressively slick. back to the drawing board.


this one was approved. ready for take off.



art direction by Steven Charny.

18 comments:

  1. I love the final, though I think the first idea would have been great too.

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  2. This is unbelievably cool, down to the white letters and dutch angle and everything. Really nice work.

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  3. WOW Tomer!! This literally takes my breath away. It's so fucking gorgeous! It's beautiful, exciting and cinematic all at once. The tilted horizon works wonders, and your choice of blacks and colors make me drool.

    / Jakob

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  4. Anonymous9:08 AM

    מת על זה

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  5. Anonymous9:18 AM

    P.s according to some news sources and Wikipedia, he is always crash-landing. I guess they are just trying to make a hero out of him

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  6. Anonymous12:12 PM

    oh i love those stories, their bad-movie-charm, which were completely ridiculous if they just were not real!

    @anonymous: "some news sources and Wikipedia" is not so serious.

    idagoldberg.blogspot.com

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  7. Kenichi12:28 PM

    Awesome.

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  8. What a cool kid!

    I love the first concept, with the bandana and his clothes flappin' in the wind. But the final is great too!

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  9. Anonymous4:25 PM

    What a shame the plane cowboy version didn't go through.

    This kid is one badass!

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  10. Awesome spread. The Barefoot Bandit is a badass

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  11. Freaking awesome, as usual.

    Your first ideas were pretty solid, but I can see where the art director found its concept not completely matching the story of the article. Beautiful work nonetheless.

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  12. Love the process and finished product!

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  13. Very cool– what a fun story to illustrate.
    And the finished piece is beautiful.

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  14. Hehehe clever guy and I hope he will never be found :) I like your painting a lot!

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  15. sick colors I like the original idea best, wish they went with that one.

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  16. Anonymous7:12 PM

    Fantastic

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