It’s not just the bird in a circle that’s a well-trodden path with airline logos. Birds of all sorts. Have a look.

Air Algerie logo
Air Algerie logo

Air Jamaica logo
Air Jamaica logo

Ariana logo
Ariana airline logo

Cameroon Air logo
Cameroon Air logo

Condor logo
Condor airline logo

Iraqi Airways logo
Iraqi Airways logo

Japan Airlines logo (previous)
Japan Airlines logo

Lloyd Aeroe Boliviano logo
Lloyd Aeroe airline logo

Lufthansa logo
Designed by Otto Firle, in 1918
Modified by Otl Aicher, in 1969
Lufthansa logo

Tame Airlines logo
Tame Airlines logo

Tarom Romanian Air Transport logo
Tarom airline logo

Turkish Airlines logo
Turkish Airlines logo

Zambia Airways logo
Zambia Airways airline logo

In fact, when you consider what other airline logos look like, it’s probably a wise move to steer clear of birds altogether. Look at these.

Aero Mexico logo
Aero Mexico airline logo

Air Gabon logo
Air Gabon airline logo

Air Mauritius logo
Air Mauritius airline logo

Air Siam logo
Air Siam logo

American Airlines logo
Designed by Vignelli Associates, in 1967
American Airlines logo

Cathay Pacific logo
Cathay Pacific airline logo

Garuda Indonesia logo
Designed by Landor (thanks Tjeerd)
Garuda Indonesia airline logo

Kuwait Airways logo
Kuwait Airways logo

Ozark Airlines logo
Ozark Airlines logo

Piedmont Airlines logo
Piedmont Airlines logo

Presidential Airways logo
Presidential Airways logo

Singapore Airlines logo
Singapore Airlines logo

Taca Airlines logo
Designed by Lippincott, in 2008
Taca Airlines logo

Tam Airlines logo
Tam Airlines logo

Trans Mediterranean Airways logo
Trans Mediterranean Airways logo

If you know who designed any of the un-labelled designs, please let me know so I can add credit.

More airline logos on The Museum of Flight — link removed, broken as of 2022, unfortunately. If you liked this, you might like the British Airways logo evolution.

Comments

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!

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!

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).

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.

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!

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

I’ve opened a can of worms (the birds will be happy).

Thanks for the additional suggestions, and Jonny, for your first comment. I see you’ve launched your blog. I hope that works out well.

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!

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.

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?

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…

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.

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.

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.

Ask 100 designers to create a logo for a photography studio. They’ll come up with 80 stylized cameras (some of them on tripods), 10 stylized apertures (with and without flare) and 10 various stylized pieces of studio equipment (umbrellas, barndoors etc). Been there, done that.

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