Airline Livery and Airline Branding: Part 1

In the first installment of our “Airline Livery and Airline Branding” investigative series, we look at some of the worst integrations of corporate branding with airline livery. These airline liveries represent serious design flaws and gaps in the process of turning corporate airline branding into airline livery.

China Southern Airlines livery
Like many other airlines on our list, China Southern Airlines seems to have found a copy of an old corporate guidebook: “Blue is the new white in the corporate world.” Unfortunately, that book is still pretty old.

Amidst the blue, China Southern Airlines - China’s largest and most famous airline - is having an identity crisis. The livery features a light blue tail with a Bombax ceiba plant (in red); two shades of blue and an accent of gold begins on the nose and forms a stripe down most of the body of the plane, and “China Southern” appears on the plane in both English and Chinese. It is very distinct, but that’s about all the branding has going for it.

Aside from borrowing the light blue as an accent color for the stripe section, there is no design symmetry between the tail and fuselage paint jobs. Then, there is the small matter that the plane does nothing (aside from the Chinese name) to remind people that this is a Chinese airline. The famous red and yellow Chinese flag is nowhere to be found; there aren’t even any stars (pulled from the flag) used as accents on the plane. There is simply nothing special about the design to make it memorable or recognisable unless you already know what you’re looking at.

China Southern Airlines branding grade: D-

Delta Air Lines livery
Delta, to its credit, has changed its livery more often than flight attendants change their standard aircraft greeting. The company unveiled an updated livery in April 2007, so they get no breaks when it comes to complaints about their new branding.

According to their press release, the new livery is the result of months of corporate research and surveys of both staff and customers. And what did they come up with? A blue tail with a hard-lined red triangle falling to one side, the tipsy equivalent of their new logo, which appears subtly on the body of the plane next to the “Delta” name. The bottom of the aircrafts are also painted in a “Why bother?” blue that is barely noticeable as anything other than a shadow, unless you’re standing under the plane.

So why are we coming down so hard on Delta? Because they have no excuse. Delta can’t fall back on American or Continental’s “iconic” argument, nor can they claim that their new logo is some stylised “D” or some sort of patriotic stance (aside from being red-white-blue, which - you’ll note from our series, we’ve seen a few times before and is not new to Delta either). For that matter, why can’t the new triangle logo incorporate a “D” somehow? Round off a few corners and you’ve got instant branding instead of “instant random shape on white plane.”

Delta Air Lines branding grade: D-

Japan Airlines livery
Just like China Southern, Japan Airlines is having a livery identity crisis, but this one was brought on by a similar identity issue on the corporate side. The airline - Asia’s largest - is operated by a larger network known as JAL Corporation, and this dual identity has carried over into the Japan Airlines livery.

The body of the plane is Eurowhite, with the JAL logo towards the front. Further down the fuselage is “Japan Airlines” in a simple, but unrelated, font. The plain look (pun intended) is finished with a red “rising sun” on the tail with subtle shadowy accents.

The tail graphic, while a simple touch, is effective. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the overall look of the livery and the branding that goes with it. The JAL logo and “Japan Airlines” text are completely separate in terms of style and execution - JAL is bold, modern and sweeping; “Japan Airlines” is a thin, Asian-influenced font. Simply put, they don’t fit each other, and they look ridiculous when placed side-by-side.

It’s hard to pinpoint whether this is a corporate issue stemming from JAL Corporation’s need to brand all of their subsidy airlines - there are nine - in similar togs. We realise there is a certain set of issues, and even benefits, that come from pasting your name on everything you own. But the transition from corporate identity to identifiable, well-dressed livery could have been done better, either by marrying the two styles in a streamlined way or accenting the “Japan Airlines” text with JAL touches. By not doing so, the resulting look is a failure of both corporate branding and modern airline livery.

Japan Airlines branding grade: D-

Follow the other installments of our “Airline Livery and Airline Branding” investigative series: