Birds of a feather flock together
Branding a commercial airline is something I’d love to do, but by working solo I do wonder if I’ll ever get the opportunity. Regardless, there’s one design option I’d like to overlook — the bird in a circle.
Air Algerie
Air Jamaica
Ariana
Cameroon Air
Condor
Iraqi Airways
Japan Airlines (previous)
Lloyd Aeroe Boliviano
Lufthansa
Designed by Otto Firle, in 1918
Modified by Otl Aicher, in 1969
Tame Airlines
Tarom Romanian Air Transport
Turkish Airlines
Zambia Airways
In fact, it’s probably wise that I steer clear of birds altogether.
Aero Mexico
Air Gabon
Air Mauritius
Air Siam
American Airlines
Designed by Vignelli Associates, in 1967
Cathay Pacific
Garuda Indonesia
Kuwait Airways
Ozark Airlines
Piedmont Airlines
Presidential Airways
Singapore Airlines
Taca Airlines
Designed by Lippincott, in 2008
Tam Airlines
Trans Mediterranean Airways
If you know who designed the above logos, please let me know so I can add credit.
View more airline logos on The Museum of Flight. Via @AisleOne.
Header photo courtesy of Thinkstock.
69 appreciated comments, click here to add one
Mark Tester
This is quite a collection. I’ve probably never heard of about 80% of this little lot! It seems that most are quite dated in style and very dry. I think avoiding wings altogether would be necessary! Out of them all though I appreciated ‘Garuda Indonesia’ the most – at least its not in a circle!
Apr 26th, 2010
Saajid Vawda
The airline from my country (Air Mauritius)’s logo is also a bird. link. I just thought it would also be a nice inclusion on this (almost) comprehensive list. ;)
Apr 26th, 2010
Tjeerd van Sas
The Garuda-logo was created by Landor, just like their previous one.
The Ozark logo reminds me of the logo of the Knaus Caravan brand http://images.google.com/images?q=knaus+logo
Detail: some older caravans (travel trailers for the americans) by Knaus have the swallows flying down instead of up. These were produced when it didn’t go well with the company.
Apr 26th, 2010
Rafael Zart
Another airline company: http://www.tam.com.br included a bird in logo after redesign.
Apr 26th, 2010
lee newham
Look up Taca Airlines in El Salvador. They have gone down the bird route too.
Apr 26th, 2010
ndb
You can add a PLL LOT (polish airlines) to the mix
http://www.icsv16.org/content/sponsorship/LOT_Logo.jpg
Apr 26th, 2010
adrian boioglu
here’s another one from TAROM – Romanian Airlines http://www.tarom.ro/&res/img/brand/logo.gif
Apr 26th, 2010
Victor Zuniga
hahahaha, this is cool.
Apr 26th, 2010
Chris Spain
A bird in a circle is also something you want to avoid if you find yourself on the set of Sesame Street: Ring of Death edition.
Nice post, and a sturdy reminder to at least take a look around before designing a logo!
Apr 26th, 2010
Aaina Sharma
This is a great observation and collection of airline logos. It’s shocking to me how similar some of these look. Thanks for the warning. :)
Apr 27th, 2010
Youssef Sarhan
I wrote on this exact topic nearly a year ago now!
http://www.whiteinkblog.com/2009/06/18/designing-by-convention/
Apr 27th, 2010
homer j.
What’s wrong with the American Airlines logo? It was designed by Massimo Vignelli and has not been changed for over 40 years. And the eagle is the national bird of the US so I think that ‘bird logo’ does a great job of representing an ‘american airline’. (Side note: watch his interview in the documentary Helvetica).
Apr 27th, 2010
Ian Houghton
Oh my god, Air Gabon is amazing. It looks like it was designed by Jim Henson! Personally I’ve always been a fan of the Qantas logo. Nice placement on the tailfin, and it’s not a bloody bird.
Apr 27th, 2010
Nancy Craft
I was wondering, could you do the same thing for companies with “international” in their name that use globe images ;-) ?
Apr 27th, 2010
Mariano
Making a logo for airlines without using a plane: a bird. Haha. It seems to be the first thing that comes to mind.
Good post.
Apr 27th, 2010
Nancy Craft
I wonder how many agencies convinced the airlines to go with these particular logo because marketing research encouraged the message the logo would send to consumers….
I could just explode with laughter!
Apr 28th, 2010
Jake Mauer
How about the old Japan Airlines logo, which was a circle *and* a bird!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Old_JAL_logo_original.svg/120px-Old_JAL_logo_original.svg.png
Apr 28th, 2010
Luca
also Air One – http://www.alitalia.com/AP_IT/home/index.aspx
Apr 28th, 2010
Danny
See also the Argentine airline: http://www.aerolineas.com.ar/
Apr 28th, 2010
Barbara
Uzbekistan Airways logo should also be added.
Apr 28th, 2010
Paul M. Watson
What about a deer in a circle? The old South African Airways logo had a flying Springbok (a buck, like a deer.) http://flagspot.net/images/z/za$saaold.gif
The new one has bird/wing connotations but is more based on the South African flag I think; http://www.capetown4u.co.za/App_Themes/Default/Images/Flights/South%20African%20Airways/saa.gif
Apr 28th, 2010
Josh
Air Namibia has a very similar logo to Lufthansa too. Circle and bird.
http://airnamibia.com/
Apr 28th, 2010
Sandeep
There’s also the Indian airline – Kingfisher http://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&pws=0&q=kingfisher+airlines+logo
Apr 28th, 2010
AldoP
The now-defunct Highland Airways also used the bird:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Airways
Apr 28th, 2010
AldoP
Forgot to mention Austrian airlines. :)
Apr 28th, 2010
Edward Vielmetti
Don’t forget North Central Airlines, with the “blue goose” or “Herman the Duck”
http://www.hermantheduck.org/
Apr 28th, 2010
Greg Willis
Air Namibia
http://www.airnamibia.com.na/
Apr 28th, 2010
conrick
This is the logo of aeromexico an aztec eagle warrior
http://www.logoterra.com/logodesign-logo-design-logo_design5/logos_2/AeroMexico_logo.gif
Apr 28th, 2010
Philip Chuang
Two big omissions so far:
Cathay Pacific (wing/feather only)
Singapore Airlines
Apr 28th, 2010
Stephan
And even more:
tame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAME)
Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.labairlines.com.bo/index_eng.asp)
SATENA (http://www.satena.com/)
Saereo (http://www.saereo.com/)
Apr 28th, 2010
Stephan
And a few more:
Ostfriesische Lufttransport (http://www.olt.de/)
TAM (http://www.tam.com.br)
Aerolineas Argentinas (http://www.aerolineas.com.ar)
Aeormexico kind of has one (http://www.aeromexico.com)
Aerosur (http://www.aerosur.com/)
Iran Air (http://www.iranair.com/)
Aseman Airlines (http://www.iaa.ir/)
Apr 28th, 2010
NFAH
China Eastern: http://www.chinaeastern.co.uk/
Apr 28th, 2010
Sydney
Um.
Air Canada?
Apr 29th, 2010
Mike
Missed a big flyer of planes that transports many people all over the world.
http://www.af.mil/
Some kind of winged thing.
Apr 29th, 2010
Mad_Hatteress
QANTAS for the win!
Apr 29th, 2010
Jonathan
Hilarious! there are a couple good ones in there though, shame about all the chaff.
Apr 29th, 2010
Taichi Kaminogoya
China Eastern Air
http://www.ce-air.com/
Apr 29th, 2010
Brian Bungay
How about the old BOAC logo?
Apr 29th, 2010
Sarah
You forgot the Air Koryo (JS).
Apr 29th, 2010
JC
Mexicana previous logo was also an eagle: http://www.christiancoquet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/mexicana_logos.png
Apr 30th, 2010
MatKal
You forgot this: http://www.icsv16.org/content/sponsorship/LOT_Logo.jpg
Apr 30th, 2010
Jonny
Yeah the bird is well overused, but the bird has always been the icon for flight, even going back hundreds of years.
The designers have obviously opted to use global iconography which I personally think can be justified – even if it is a tad boring for designers to look at.
PS: First post from a long-time lurker. Great blog right here, and a lot of nice work on your main site too.
Cheers,
Jonny
Apr 30th, 2010
Stuart
I’d like to add Nok Air and Orient Thai Airlines from Thailand to your list — http://www.nokair.com/ and http://www.orient-thai.com/. In the case of Nok, though, they not only added it to their logo, they named the company after it! (“nok” means “bird” in Thai language).
May 2nd, 2010
James
Also: Air Niugini, http://www.airniugini.com.pg/
May 2nd, 2010
Anna
Eastern Airlines!
“Old logo”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eastern_Airlines_logo_on_plane.jpg
“More recent logo”:
http://www.airlinereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/EasternB727Correct.jpg
May 3rd, 2010
David Airey
I opened a can of worms with this one (the birds will be happy).
Thanks a lot for the additional suggestions, and Jonny, great of you to leave your first comment. I see you’ve just launched your own blog. I hope that works out well for you.
May 3rd, 2010
Orion1977
Portuguese SATA was recently re-designed with some some sort of origami crane.
http://www.sata.pt
May 3rd, 2010
Alejandro Rodríguez
Check what Landor designed for my country’s airline:
http://www.pluna.com.uy/images/nuestra-flota.jpg
It sure beats everyone else on number of birds! There is a reason though: Uruguay means “river of the coloured birds” in guarani. So there you have, our planes have coloured birds on them.
(Other translations propose “river of the snails”, but Landor didn’t give them much credit).
And a hat tip to Escher, too.
Great site David!
May 5th, 2010
Kerahna
Air China too~ http://www.airchina.com/
when I was little I was told they nicknamed it the “divine bird”
May 6th, 2010
chris
Polish airlines LOT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOT_Polish_Airlines#History
May 6th, 2010
Nicholas
Aegean Airlines’ logo actually has TWO birds!
http://en.aegeanair.com/Default.aspx
May 6th, 2010
Lee
Almost a bird in a circle: http://www.yangonair.com
May 7th, 2010
Christopher Buttner
Bird in a circle… as in the representation of a bird getting sucked into a jet engine…? Umm… not such a hot idea.
May 14th, 2010
Budhi D Sarmadi
I like Garuda Indonesia both; the concept, and execution. clean and simple. not because i’m an Indonesian. ;)
Thk u David. Good post as usual.
Jun 11th, 2010
Ahmad
Do anyone here know the significance of the Singapore Airline logo?
Jun 15th, 2010
kimmeth
Wow, solidly bummed here, I just happen to be doing an aeronautics logo for a client who specifically asked for a bird as a mascot… and also remarked they LIKE simple circular logos a LOT.
So how do you keep your energy and will to invest when you are met with this kind of done-to-death challenge?
Jun 24th, 2010
SLW
Out of 154 airline logos I found on this page (http://iamtheweather.com/weather/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/airline-logos.jpg) only 48 of them have circles. That’s only about 31%, but that thirty percent is higher than any other major geometric shape used as a unifying design element.
I like circles. I may use a circle for the logo I’m redesigning right now.
What about the companies that do not have circle-bird logos?
Virgin, Southwest, JetBlue, Continental, Delta, US Airways
Not all their logos are that great. They are just really memorable because of advertising…
Jul 6th, 2010
Ren Spiteri
There’s a perfectly good reason why so many airlines use a bird as the basis for their logos – because it is appropriate.
Kind of like using a heart in a logo wishing to express affection for something.
As someone once said, ‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it’. While I like some more than others, in spite of what they have in common, with a few exceptions, they all look pretty unique.
Jul 21st, 2010
Raoul
Check Ukraine International Airlines, similar to Lufthansa:
http://www.flyuia.com
Jan 25th, 2011
Chris
You’ve forgotten this one:
http://www.icsv16.org/content/sponsorship/LOT_Logo.jpg
The logo of the polish airlines “LOT” with a white stork in the middle.
Jan 26th, 2011
Adiputra
One thing for sure, Landor made the Garuda Indonesia, and using the blue gradient from the depth of the ocean, simply represent Indonesia as an archipelago nation.
Feb 14th, 2011
Jerry Phillip Huff
When I designed the Japan Air Lines logo in 1958, I wanted it to look Japanese above all else, so I chose the from an antique samurai family crest book. The red we labelled Tori red which is a happy colour in Japan. Of course, it was modified from the original for functionality. I think it stands up very well and I am quite pleased that JAL is reintroducing it.
Jun 5th, 2011
David Airey
Thanks for dropping by to share your rationale, Jerry.
Mar 23rd, 2012
Piyush Agarwal
You can add the Kingfisher Airlines to the list as well – http://www.flykingfisher.com/
Sep 20th, 2012
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