Virgin Blue rebrands as Virgin Australia
Virgin Blue relaunched yesterday as Virgin Australia. I caught the news from the johnson banks Twitter feed:
“No we didn’t do the Virgin Australia logo, yes we think it’s a bit close for comfort…”
As covered previously, johnson banks crafted the Virgin Atlantic design.
Here’s the old mark for Virgin Blue, then the new Virgin Australia logo.
“The airline yesterday showcased the widebody and narrow-body versions of its new product on an Airbus A330 and Boeing 737. They sported a funky new Virgin logo designed by Australian Hans Hulsbosch.”
Excerpted from yesterday’s piece on The Australian.
More images on Australian Business Traveller (the vertical tail fins display a different design from that shown in the logo, featured below and also toward the end of the TV ad embedded at the foot of the post).
Photo by Damian Shaw, courtesy of The Australian
Virgin Australia TV ad (embedded below)
Virgin has a history of disparate brand identities, but I’m still left wondering:
Why hasn’t Virgin worked with johnson banks for the Virgin Australia update? Why the design differences from the recently redesigned Virgin Atlantic identity? How much does it actually matter?
Elsewhere:
Virgin Atlantic website
Virgin Australia website
Virgin Airlines rebranded to take on Qantas
Time-lapse video of Virgin Atlantic aircraft painting
6 appreciated comments, click here to add one
Pinball
The new Virgin Australia livery is boring compared to the current Virgin Blue livery. http://www.virginblueairpass.com/cms/groups/e-commerce/documents/internetcontent/u_000897.jpg
May 5th, 2011
Conway Anderson
The Virgin brand for airlines (and in general) has visually become far too confused. Too many marks, not enough consistency. I think industry specific changes like putting the virgin name on a visual livery is fine, but having wide differences even within the same industry seems lazy.
May 5th, 2011
Michael
I think you’ll find that the new Virgin Australia logo that you’ve got displayed was actually a fake before launch, speculating on what it could be (seen here http://www.ausbt.com.au/virgin-australia-s-new-brand-and-logo-options-analysis). The actual Virgin Australia logo doesn’t feature the purple – rather silver.
May 5th, 2011
David Airey
Cheers Michael. I appreciate the correction.
Conway, messy? I agree. Hugely successful in spite of it? that too. Testament to how a brand is what others say about it (my experience on board Virgin Atlantic was great, albeit 10 years ago since I last flew with them). Would a more coherent identity help? I think so.
May 5th, 2011
devin parker
As for the commercial, it could have been more clear. The copy came and went a little to fast and overall the video had a huge build up but no solid end. They could have done this better with the music coming to an end as the plane took off? Also, the last thing you see is, “Virgin Australia,” and the planes have red smoke coming out of them, I feel the red smoke was too much and it left a bed impression.
May 5th, 2011
Antonea Nabors
It honestly just looks like they cut 2 logos in half and stuck them together. For such a big brand you think they would have better art direction when doing this project.
May 9th, 2011
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