American Airlines recently went through a re-branding effort and released the fruit of their work this week. Initial reactions to the AA re-branding have been mostly positive in my anecdotal reading. Even more exciting, BusinessWeek has an interview with the original AA designer, Massimo Vignelli. He touches on many of the items that I was asking myself when first viewing the re-branding video. Who’s flag is that on the tail fin? What is the new logo supposed to be? Why move away from their original type treatment? Marrimo even gets into the function of some of Americans decisions,
The paint adds so much weight that that brings an incredible amount of fuel consumption. For some reason they decided to paint the plane. The fact is, weight is weight.
For me, the new plane paint job misses the mark. At best,  the silver tube harkens back to their classic steel look, good.  At worst, the new paint is confusing, specifically the tail fin. Is it supposed to be the American flag or part of the flag? If not, then what is it, and if yes, why 11 stripes and where is the color white? It just doesnt say, “American flag”.

Related Links

  • http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671677/american-airlines-rebrands-itself-and-america-along-with-it
  • http://www.designboom.com/design/futurebrand-american-airlines-rebrand/