Imua One’s design connects Hawaiian culture, Southwest values

Throughout the 17-day painting process of Southwest Airlines’ new Imua One aircraft, Kurt Osaki said he would go to the hangar at the end of each workday to thank the painting crew.

“Every night they would be there late, and I would go up to them and thank them before I left,” said Osaki, who is one of the designers behind the aircraft’s Hawaiian-­themed livery. “They would say, ‘We feel so proud of this design that we want to make sure it’s done right.’”

At first, Osaki thought that the workers probably said that about every project they work on. But on the last day of painting, Osaki watched the painting team photograph the aircraft for themselves. One worker in particular stood beneath the fuselage touching the airplane.

When Osaki approached the man to thank him for his hard work, the man reciprocated his gratitude.

“This guy thanked me for him working on the plane,” Osaki recalled. “He said, ‘Thank you for allowing me to work on the Imua One, because it was an honor and this is one of the greatest projects I’ve worked with.’”

Two days later four more workers wrote to Osaki to tell him similar things, which Osaki said was not only fulfilling, but, more important, demonstrated the concept behind Imua One.

“It’s about coming together and moving forward,” he said. “How we’re going to teach people, how we’re going to care for people and how we’re going to share.”

Imua One’s design was created by Osaki and his team at Osaki Creative Group, under the guidance of Native Hawaiian artist, designer and researcher Herman Pi‘ikea Clark. The design process took about seven months, Osaki said.

From the beginning, Osaki said he envisioned connecting the design to Southwest’s company values, which he became familiar with during his college studies.

“I’d studied Herb Kelleher, their founder, and I was always inspired by him,” Osaki said. “I always knew that their values all pointed back to people.”

He was inspired by Southwest’s contributions to things like environmental causes, families in need and supporting connection between communities. In the end they decided on eight central visual elements: ohana (family), honu (turtle), aina (land), ama (support), hoku (star), kai (ocean), lokahi (unity) and imua (forward), according to a Southwest news release.

Once the eight elements were decided, Clark said that one of the next challenges was to ensure that the meaning behind each Hawaiian word was maintained, while keeping it connected to Southwest’s values.

“Hawaiian language is very specific and yet, at the same time, very broad,” Clark said. “The danger was that we could probably ascribe too much to the word, and in doing so, we lose the word.”

To ensure that the integrity of each word was maintained, they explained the symbolism behind each visual element and its relation to the Hawaiian words.

The lei near the nose of the aircraft honors the unique islands with each of their official flowers, while five stars represent each of the five airports in Hawaii that Southwest serves. Six paddlers in an outrigger represents the concept of imua, and six turtles in two groups of three represent harmony and balance.

Reflective of colors in Southwest’s heart logo, a gradient transition of bold blue to warm red and sunrise yellow represent the evolution from night to day while also honoring Hawaiian history of journeying the Pacific using wind and following the guidance of the sun, stars and moon to navigate.

Once the painting of the airplane was complete, Osaki and Clark discussed the idea to ask for a blessing from the Indigenous community in Spokane, Wash., where the aircraft was created.

“This was being done on someone else’s land, and we wanted to acknowledge and respect them, and ask permission of them,” Clark said.

The blessing was held April 28 at the Spokane painting facility, the morning that Imua One would travel to its unveiling location in Long Beach, Calif. There the aircraft was blessed by citizens of the Spokane Tribe of Indians, and Kahu Kordell C.L. Kekoa, a Hawaiian church minister, according to a Southwest news release.

The ceremony was small and private but powerful, leaving many with tears in their eyes, Clark said.

Reflecting on the importance of creating an aircraft with cultural designs, Southwest spokesperson Brad Hawkins said that the work on the Imua One design was a natural extension of Southwest’s culture-centered approach to best serve Hawaii’s community. “These moments of ceremony around aircraft dedicated to places or people always aim to reflect the culture and the character of a place that we’re honoring,” Hawkins said in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Imua One was dedicated to the people of Southwest and to the communities of Hawaii. Following the unveiling in Long Beach, it was flown to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on April 28 before proceeding to visit the four other airports in Hawaii that it will serve.

The aircraft was flown to Dallas on May 1 where it was displayed at Southwest headquarters before going into revenue service Wednesday, said Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson.

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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.