Two Airlines Reveal New Brand Identities

This is the time of year I do a lot of flying, which means a lot of bargain-hunting for great fares. As I recently shopped around for good deals, I noticed two of the better-known bargain airlines—Southwest and Frontier—have revamped their looks, undoubtedly to stay relevant in their increasingly competitive industry.

Southwest Airlines moved its familiar heart icon front and center, quite literally in the case of the new plane graphics, and even dubbed its fleet of planes “Heart One.” For Southwest, the heart symbolizes the core of its business model: the people in the company connecting with customers and remaining true to its values. The team in charge of the new look—including branding partners GSD&M, Lippincott, Razorfish, Camelot Communications, and VML—used the entire plane as a canvas and emblazoned the heart icon on the belly of the new planes. The rest of each vehicle is adorned with the familiar vibrant stripes of red and yellow on a field of blue while the company name features prominently on the fuselage.

The new look extends beyond the planes to the web and in-person visual experience, as well. Southwest’s re-brand, complete with custom-designed typeface, will include airport counters, in-flight magazine, and even their whimsical “DING!” advertisements. Being a cost-conscious carrier, they’ve opted for a slow roll-out of the new look. The company is achieving this by working within the existing schedules for vehicle painting and opting to re-vamp airport signage and branding as scheduled improvements come due. You can check out a 360º view of the new planes here and the cgi “unveiling” video of the new look is pretty impressive as well (scroll down to “The Big Reveal” to view the video).

Frontier Airlines took a different approach to their new look and blended the past with the present and future. To start, the Colorado-based company kept a fan favorite: the animals that adorn the planes and have served as spokescritters for over a decade. From the slightly dim-witted Flip the Dolphin to the harsh but lovable Grizwald the Bear, the animals have grown beyond the confines of the plane’s tail and are now prominently featured on the entire rear of the plane.

The green and blue color scheme—representing both land and sky—is repeated throughout the plane graphics on the fuselage and engine nacelles. The change my eye was immediately drawn to was the re-introduction of the stylized “F” in the company name. Emblazoned across the majority of the fuselage, the new logo incorporates the Saul Bass designed element that was first used in 1978. The rest of the company name and the website is set using the Gotham typeface, which the company says represents a positive look to the future. To complete the melding of past and present, Frontier’s design team incorporated the arrow accent from the company’s logo used in the 1950s.

It’s yet to be seen if the re-branding of either of these companies will have an impact on their bottom line—either positive or negative—but with all the troubles that come with flying in today’s world, the extra enthusiasm about these carriers’ new looks is refreshing.

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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