Jack Woolley

@jackwoolley1

Designer

334 posts

On the flight with American there was In Flight Entertainment.this is a short video I took to show a little bit of what was shown. This video is Mao let an animation with a voice over. I thought this was a nice touch and it got me thinking about the type of hinge I could produce for my airline.

I had the chance to experience an airline this January, American Airlines. There was no better way to finding out what was good, bad and missing from this industry than to actually go and experience it for yourself. This is the app that I used a long the way, very functional but not perfect, both the UI and the overall experience wasn't something that I really enjoyed using. I want to create something that people will enjoy using but is functional at the same time. I want to create a tool.

NMP

For this brief I am going to focus the majority of my outcomes on the digital side, as this is the area I am most interested in. This could be an app, in flight entertainment, website, anything that an airline would produce.

The Brief

DESIGN AN AIRLINE COMPLETELY CENTERED AROUND THE USER. DESIGN THE BRAND, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES THAT WILL NOT ONLY MEET, BUT EXCEED THE USERS NEEDS.

THINK ABOUT HOW WE CAN USE TODAYS TECHNOLOGY TO AID US IN MAKING THE OPTIMAL AIRLINE EXPERIENCE.

Packaging.

Packaging is something I didn't want to focus a lot of my time on as I wanted to explore the digital side more. Digital is my area and where I like to spend the majority of my time.

I decided to experiment with food packaging. The box is minimal and clean which is what my brand is about. Something I did like was the copywriting, it combines the brand name the fact that it is breakfast and uses the phrase ‘Rise and Shine’.

Brand Materials.

This is a mock up of what some brand materials would look like. I have gone for a minimal approach, using on brand colours. I want it to convey a premium feel with some style. I think the black is a really strong statement and represents the brand well.

I was experimenting with the logo and decided to use the logo as an actual frame. This could be location based, for example, if I was to advertise a certain location, I could use this particular logo for that.

I thought it was a cool addition.

Here I've been experimenting with colours. I wanted them to be clean and minimal whilst still popping within certain circumstances.

These colours deliver premium feel and with the far right blue it adds a highlight colour. This is extremely useful in all areas of what I am going to product, especially digital.

The type I have chosen is Pier Sans, a minimal typeface that looks great in a minimal setting. Its looks good in lower and uppercase and is modern and clean.

Butler is another I have chosen, this is more of a highlight type. This will be used for various type in and around every product as a contrast to Pier Sans.

The Rise logo.

Sketching out some logo ideas for Rise.

I really like the idea of a circle with type. The logo would have various connotations and would have a clean and minimal approach.

The circle would represent the sun, bringing a new day and new beginning....something fresh and new. This is something I want my brand to convey. And RISE because I want it to meet the user more that any other airline (rise above the rest).

The logo could also be used in other parts of the brand, for example .com, entertainment, shopping, etc, each could be contained inside the circle and have a different colour. This is something I am going to experiment with as i this it would strengthen the brand.

When experimenting with naming my airline I started with keywords. From here I picked ones that I thought represented what I wanted to create and that sounded good. Sometimes I would combine words too. I came up with the name Virtue, this was due to the meaning, maintaining moral standards, something useful and something that people want in others. I then looked more deeply into the word and found Virtus that was Latin for Virtue. I thought this sounded a lot better at first. After doing some concept logos I thought that the name really didn't represent my brand how I wanted it too, and latin had nothing to do with my brand. It shows that experimentation is key.

From here I went back to key words, this is when I came across RISE. I really liked this as a name, for me it represented some thing fresh and new, something above all else, something that is moving to a higher position. This is what i wanted to go with as my brand is about dedicating the services and products to the user...going beyond what it expected.

Logo Research

Something I try not to do is do too much research into something i am going to produce. The reason for this is I feel it limits my creativity, although I think it is important to look at existing work as it helps you keep up and gives you further ideas, I also feel like looking at logo designs within a project disrupts my process. If I see something I like I may try to do something similar and think less about the brand and what I want to convey. I feel it is a more organic way to work when I sit down and sketch what I want to communicate, not having that logo design i really liked in my head all the time.

I always look at existing work, wether it is branding or UX/UI design, but I try to do this outside of project time, this means I know what is out there but it doesn't impact my creative process and all the ideas that I produce are mine.

So for this project I didn't research logos, I went straight to sketches.

Overall I think a lot of Airline visual identities are dated bit over the past 3 years or so they have started to refresh themselves. The have one issue with this, the digital side...they're not carrying it throughout. I'd like to see a brand that carries out a modern, clean look throughout all its products and services.

American Airlines had a brand refresh not too long ago, overall the branding is a lot better. Modern and clean. The new logo has taken subtle hints from the old logo so it is still recognisable as a brand but looks a lot better. I also like the livery...super clean. Kate way they have the flag/artwork on the tale rather than their logo I really like, something different.

Been looking at a few existing airline brands, Finnair was one that I really liked and thought was strong. What I really like about it is the minimalist approach, from logo and livery to interior and digital. Everything seems so clean which I really appreciate. One thing people tend to feel when on a plane is quite claustrophobic, with the approach that Finnair takes I think it alumina yes part of this white their clean, minimal approach.

Some quick research into existing apps. Some of these apps have some really good features but the majority tend to fall into the same box. It's like they all use one template which is outdated. With the rise of smartphones over the last 8-9 years companies love to spend money on being a part of it with apps. The trouble is apps are there to provide function and to be honest a lot of them don't provide any. You can book flights, which is a given but a lot are container apps which is a horrible experience. I want to create something that goes beyond this template and creates a tool for the traveler. A lot of these apps best function is check-in and having a digital boarding pass. These can be found on most home screens as call to actions, at all times, why? Surely the home screen could be served as a more useful page for the user.

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