turkish airlines decorated one of their boeing 737 airplanes with 17,000 photographs of their employees throughout the world image © alberto schilirò, courtesy jetphotos

in a project designed to recognize its employees internationally, turkish airlines has skinned one of their boeing 737 planes with about 17,000 photographs of the company’s staff from across 191 flight destinations.

the project took four months to realize. a photo was first taken of each employee, and the thousands of images were compiled into a montage for use on the aircraft. with coloured margins between photos causing the spelling out of ‘globally yours’ across the length of the plane, the design reflects a turkish seljuk motif, referenced also in the interior designs of all turkish airlines craft.

the printed skin was applied to the boeing by 20 employees. the decorated boeing 737 plane is now in regular use in turkish airline’s working fleet.

turkish airline plane features the portraits of 17,000 employees details of the skin images © la repubblica

turkish airline plane features the portraits of 17,000 employees full view composition

turkish airline plane features the portraits of 17,000 employees the complete airplane, viewed from above

turkish airline plane features the portraits of 17,000 employees alternate side view, from afar

timelapse video of the creation of the airplanes