Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1152740
G K O T M V E H I C L E C O N C E P T D E S I G N | P E R S P E C T I V E 5 9 The Monarch Command Ship The Monarch Organization's flying fortress, the Argo, is a gigantic flying wing in the vein of the Northrop YB-35, albeit twenty times larger with a sharper, saw-tooth trailing edge due to its series of interlocking wing systems and airfoils. Production Designer Scott Chambliss created the opportunity for a thorough development of Monarch's flagship vehicle, and he suggested that I initially begin with a large number of silhouette studies. These I created with Photoshop's custom shape tool. This approach enabled a very clean shape to be preserved, repeated, self-intersected and scaled. After approval for further development, I would then take the top selects and paint greater detail into them. A strong silhouette was particularly important as a first read when seen in camera next to a host of gigantic Kaiju. The key sketches revealed all of the elements of the segmenting airfoil sections, with the potential for extension and unfoldment, a highly technological variable wing system like the F-14 Tomcat, writ-large. The other initial drawings were used as source material, which would come in and out of play orchestrally as the form developed over time. In the back of my mind during the process, I imagined the plane to have been designed and built by a Japanese equivalent of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the invention of stealth aircraft, Google Maps and arguably the internet. This stage of development focused on advanced propulsion, logistics and material-science technology. This included a fuselage with an A.I. optimized anistropic layout for the carbon fiber sheets and plates, greatly increasing the strength to weight C D ratio of the bodies floating compression system of parts. The nose of the craft was typified by a compound surface, vapor-deposition coated polycarbonate forward glass in the observation deck, which would be sandwiched inside the wing section for added structural rigidity, with the hope of withstanding a frontal assault from one of the film's many Kaiju monsters. During the hiatus over the winter holiday, I traveled to Tokyo and Kyoto for two weeks to further enmesh myself in the culture and rich visual landscape of Japan. Aesthetically, I was targeting a distinctly Japanese form language with an origami-like characteristic for the many folding wing sections. The theme of the plane began to take on the animistic characteristics of a bird of prey, with large stratified panels toward the trailing edge of the fuselage being reminiscent of feathers. The top or plan view of the plane being highly influenced by Japanese geometric motifs found in their family crests known as Kamon. C. ARGO COMMAND SHIP ON TARMAC. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM. D. ARGO COMMAND SHIP. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM. E. ARGO COMMAND SHIP. TOP VIEW WITH JAPANESE KAMON CRESTS. ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM. E