American Airlines Rebrand In Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica film, Massimo Vignelli famously says of his 1966/67 American Airlines logo: It’s the only airline in the last 40 years that has not changed their identity. All these airlines come and go and they change [them]. American Airlines is still the same and there’s no need to change it. How they going improve it? They’ve got the best already. Well they have changed it. For commercial reasons I can understand why the embattled airline might wish for a fresh start and identity but I’m not entirely convinced by Futurebrand’s solution. While I don’t think the original is perfect (that eagle is just slightly too cramped and visually hangs to the right), it’s iconic in its simplicity. In contrast the new 3D element with the eagle’s head protruding through the red and blue line, acts as the bar in an ‘A’, plus it also suggests the shape of a star. It’s is all a bit too contrived for me and in trying so hard the magic is missing. Vignelli’s one-word ‘AmericanAirlines’ set in Helvetica and differentiated with just red and blue has been replaced with a custom typeface called American Sans, which separates the words again. It has that informal, ‘chatty’ feel that seems ubiquitous these days. When asked for his opinion on the redesign Vignelli gave a cutting answer to Creative Review: “Clients without [a] sense of history, could not understand the value of equity.” See more of his response here. And on Bloomberg here.

American Airlines Rebrand

In Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica film, Massimo Vignelli famously says of his 1966/67 American Airlines logo:

It’s the only airline in the last 40 years that has not changed their identity. All these airlines come and go and they change [them]. American Airlines is still the same and there’s no need to change it. How they going improve it? They’ve got the best already.

Well they have changed it.

For commercial reasons I can understand why the embattled airline might wish for a fresh start and identity but I’m not entirely convinced by Futurebrand’s solution. While I don’t think the original is perfect (that eagle is just slightly too cramped and visually hangs to the right), it’s iconic in its simplicity. In contrast the new 3D element with the eagle’s head protruding through the red and blue line, acts as the bar in an ‘A’, plus it also suggests the shape of a star. It’s is all a bit too contrived for me and in trying so hard the magic is missing.

Vignelli’s one-word ‘AmericanAirlines’ set in Helvetica and differentiated with just red and blue has been replaced with a custom typeface called American Sans, which separates the words again. It has that informal, ‘chatty’ feel that seems ubiquitous these days.

When asked for his opinion on the redesign Vignelli gave a cutting answer to Creative Review: “Clients without [a] sense of history, could not understand the value of equity.” See more of his response here.
And on Bloomberg here.

creativereview.co.uk

164 notes

Show

  1. my-ahh reblogged this from typeworship
  2. meganvharvey reblogged this from typeworship
  3. mrpagoda reblogged this from typeworship
  4. leviathansociety reblogged this from typeworship
  5. komyn reblogged this from typeworship and added:
    A Designer with an ego. We need more of those in the world
  6. katie-lord reblogged this from typeworship
  7. peasantsinapod reblogged this from typeworship
  8. alannakellogg reblogged this from typeworship and added:
    Why would American Airlines switch from Helvetica to a custom font. The custom font doesn’t even look custom, it looks...
  9. stupidfish311 reblogged this from typeworship
  10. shapeshiftingmind reblogged this from davidsoutar
  11. davidsoutar reblogged this from typeworship
  12. myelis reblogged this from typeworship
  13. dariomorgante reblogged this from typeworship
  14. blink reblogged this from typeworship
  15. cconti77 reblogged this from typeworship and added:
    Agreed! Don’t fix what is not broke.
  16. georgeagpoon reblogged this from typeworship
  17. jesoutiensque reblogged this from opiate and added:
    “sense of history”
  18. ideoglyph reblogged this from typeworship and added:
    for good reason….
  19. opiate reblogged this from nksmn and added:
    Wtf
  20. chrisfato reblogged this from designiswellcool and added:
    Well, thats it folks. Clearly anyone can be a designer and fuck up an icon.
  21. grudgydoll reblogged this from designiswellcool
  22. designiswellcool reblogged this from typeworship
  23. artifextresdesigns reblogged this from typeworship
  24. dannisbet reblogged this from typeworship and added:
    I’m a tad surprised that American Airlines went for such a drastic rebrand. I was very much a fan of Vignelli’s design.
  25. charliebobgordon reblogged this from typeworship
  26. visforvaughn reblogged this from typeworship and added:
    What do you guys and girls think? It would be great to hear some comments on this.

Blog comments powered by Disqus