Truly, aerospace engineering is an endeavor that combines both art and science. Since creativity isn’t a skill typically associated with engineering, we needed to find a tangible way to demonstrate its significance. As a result, Boeing Flypaper was born. In celebration of Boeing’s centennial year, Boeing engineers created new, aerodynamically effective paper airplane designs that were then turned into a series of colorful, foldable posters—technology you can hold in your hands. Beautiful on the wall. Beautiful in flight. Beautifully designed to rekindle the wonder of flight and engage young, potential engineers.

Boeing Flypaper posters were placed in 16 Boeing Stores across the U.S., as well as the Boeing Traveling Store that makes regularly scheduled visits at Boeing facilities. The in-store displays feature the designs both as posters and as folded paper airplanes.

The posters are currently included in the Chicago Public Library’s 2016 Summer Activity Book for children. The insertions feature the designs with an emphasis on folding and cutting instructions.

In addition, posters were also placed in the Chicago Design Museum as part of Unfolded: Made with Paper, an exhibition running from April through July. The exhibit highlights the continued importance and usefulness of paper in design despite the digital nature of today’s world.

Boeing Flypaper is changing the perception of aerospace engineering. The visual nature of the posters gives tangible value to creativity in engineering using something all can recognize, and the digital world can’t duplicate—a paper airplane.

The posters were sold and displayed in Boeing Stores across the U.S. and folded by children using the Chicago Public Library’s Summer Activity Book. We’re anticipating 10,000 visitors at Unfolded based on previous exhibition traffic. In addition, a feature article about Flypaper was published in the February issue of Frontiers magazine. 77,000 issues are published each month and the online version logs 400,000–500,000 monthly page views. The article can also be found on boeing100.com.

Boeing Flypaper was designed to change how a younger audience perceives aerospace engineering in order to elevate interest in careers at Boeing. Designed by Boeing engineers, these paper airplanes were turned into colorful, foldable posters that bring engineering to life—demonstrating the innovation our audience seeks in a future career. The posters were integrated into a variety of channels where they were strategically adapted and displayed according to their environment and audience. By enabling interaction and encouraging participation with a tangible poster, we were able to more powerfully tell the Boeing story and inspire the next generation of innovators.

Boeing believes when you combine art and science, you build something better. In this case, we set out to create a simple example of what Boeing engineers do on a daily basis: solve complex, novel problems using their technical know-how and ingenuity. Boeing Flypaper takes the form of paper airplanes, a tangible and approachable way to highlight creative problem solving in engineering. We aim to inspire the best and brightest young minds to pursue a career in aerospace engineering, particularly at Boeing. We explored different media opportunities to best allow kids, high schoolers and even college students to engage with Boeing Flypaper, to ultimately demonstrate that aerospace engineering is a creative endeavor.

Boeing’s passion goes back 100 years when founder, Bill Boeing, stepped off his very first flight and declared, “I think we can build a better one.” Since 1916, that relentless passion to Build Something Better has continued to advance the boundaries of aerospace.

Despite world-leading technological innovation, Boeing’s presence and longevity in the aerospace industry often causes it to be overlooked by leading talent as a traditional manufacturer. We needed to find a way to inspire and engage these talented young minds, and shift the perception of aerospace engineering from a conventional trade to an innovation-driven career with a world of possibilities.