Spanair, a 20-year-old international airline with hubs in Madrid and Barcelona, has recently undergone some management changes when its previous full owner, Scandinavian Airlines Systems, gave 80% of its share of the company to a new group of investors. As with other management changes, this lead to the redesign of Spanair’s identity. The job went to Morillas Brand Design, who led Spanair to two very viable solutions for a new logo. The obvious next step — sarcasm! — was to put those two identity options to public voting. Between May 5 and 11, close to 80,000 people voted and mid-May, the winner was announced.

By Armin on May.26.2009 in Aviation › Link

Operating since 1933, Air France has become one of the biggest and most recognized airlines in the world, traveling to nearly 100 countries. A new identity, replacing its last update since 1975, has been designed by Brandimage. A brief video explains a little bit about the change.

By Armin on Feb.11.2009 in Aviation › Link

Connecting the American content, from South to North and for 77 years, TACA —Transportes Aéreos del Continente Americano (Air Transport of the American Continent) — unveiled a new identity at the end of September. (Sorry for the delay on this one!). I believe the golden thingies in the old logo were super streamlined eagles, and they were in need of a major overhaul that they handsomely received from Lippincott. This is a really great update, the new icon is elegant and dynamic with an inherent motion that most airline logos strive for but rarely achieve even when they “italicize” every element of the identity. The wordmark is also rather nice, and it evolves the extended serif from the previous logo with a custom sans serif that complements the icon very well. The one thing I don’t get is the purple “crest” at the top of the eagle’s head, it seems a little unnecessary to add that third color. And the one thing that did disappoint was the livery, it just seems like the identity would have lent itself to a much more engaging and attractive design on the airplane. Nonetheless, one of my favorite icons of the year.

By Armin on Dec.15.2008 in Aviation › Link

Since I travel at least once a year to Mexico and more often than not Mexicana offers the lowest price tickets I regularly find myself in their more-cramped-than-usual seats surrounded by an overall aging identity and look. The old Mexicana logo also suffered in that it resembled its biggest competitor, Aeromexico which, overall, has built a much stronger and sophisticated visual identity. Last week, Mexicana unveiled a remarkably different identity to separate it from its competitor.

By Armin on Dec.01.2008 in Aviation › Link

Sterling Airlines, a European low-fare carrier based in Copenhagen, Denmark was formed in 2005 with the merger of Sterling European Airlines A/S (SEA) and Maersk Air A/S and it recently updated its identity — I’m not sure if the old identity was only three years old or if it was carried over from SEA, an airline that has been in business since 1962 and I assume had more brand equity than Maersk Air. (As a side note, do check out a barf bag with an old SEA logo). The old identity was not particularly good: With its Valentine’s Day theme and mini airplane blowing smokehearts out of its behind, feels too cute for its own good. But the new one is plain (get it? plain = plane?) disastrous: It uses the tail of an airplane as part of its logo, something that seems awfully redundant; the shiny “S” appears to have some odd dimension that makes it look like a double wedge; and, by itself, the “S” is rather unpleasant looking. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many saving graces to this logo, other than, perhaps, it’s ultra confident new slogan, “We would fly with us”, which I do like. Below you can see old and new versions of the livery… including the even more unfortunate execution of the backwards-slanted “S” to fit the other side of the tail. !teewS.

By Armin on Mar.31.2008 in Aviation › Link

Here is one that almost passed under the radar and is not as fresh as our usual offerings. Back in very late September, Florida-based Spirit Airlines unveiled a new logo and livery that would replace the current identity that was merely five years old — one that, in use, happened to look pretty darn nice for a low fare airline [see the prior livery design after the jump]. The new identity “celebrates the colors of the Caribbean and Latin America regions” and reflects the main routes of the airline, which flies half of its flights (and growing) to destinations in those sunny regions. Besides the new 70s-styled, italicized Helvetica wordmark, Spirit has also introduced a “stylized” S [seen on the new livery after the jump] that further emphasizes their Caribbeanness, with each color getting a clever name and association: Caliente Red, Low Fares; Palm Tree Green, On-time and Reliable; Sunshine Yellow, Clean New Planes; Ocean Blue, Friendly Staff. So there you have it. The previous identity was purposedly more business like and the planes (from the outside, at least) looked like you were getting more for your money, while the new ones feel like they would not exceed your expectations. At all. The new identity feels like a step back and like it would belong better in the 80s. But, hey, you would be going to the Caribbean, right? Who cares what decade it looks like you are flying in.

By Armin on Dec.17.2007 in Aviation › Link

Qantas — Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services for long — unveiled a new logo and identity this past Tuesday, after 23 years of using the previous identity. Designed by Hulsbosch Communications — if you have patience for Flash sites, you can see some images on their web site — an Australian firm with a proven record of designing airline identities, the new logo is a subtle but beautiful change.

By John Feldhouse on Jul.25.2007 in Aviation › Link

Like most major airlines this century, Delta Air Lines has had it rough: A number of restructurings, route changes, personnel cuts, the precipitous (and, I imagine, costly) rise and fall of its low-fare carrier Song, and eventually its filing for bankruptcy. But as has been apparent in the last two or three years people are back in the air and flying their butts off, crowding every possible plane at every possible hour, so it’s no surprise that Delta (and United before it) have been able to slowly exit from such sad, demoralizing state. On April 30, Delta emerged from bankruptcy protection as an independent carrier and what better way to celebrate than in style? With a new logo and new livery design, courtesy of New York-based Lippincott Mercer.

By Armin on May.02.2007 in Aviation › Link

Does XL mean Excel? Up, up and away? Beating expectations? Getting ahead? To be superior? To surpass? Or does it just mean extra-large?

By David Weinberger on Dec.20.2006 in Aviation › Link

Recently, Brussels Airport clarified their name to be, well, “Brussels Airport” and added a tagline. Also, SN Brussels Airline, who took control of Virgin Express last year, and also uses Brussels Airport as a hub has just announced that the new, single airline brand will be Brussels Airlines.

By David Weinberger on Nov.15.2006 in Aviation › Link