
Becoming a new American Airlines - jordanbrown
http://dcurt.is/american-airlines-brand
======
therealarmen
What does this guy have against American Airlines? As if getting one of their
designers fired from his day job [1] wasn't enough.

I personally don't see what is so bad about the new redesign. I guess I just
have horrible taste.

[1]
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/6531610/America...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/6531610/American-
Airlines-worker-fired-for-replying-to-web-user-complaint.html)

~~~
rosser
How is the designer responding to Curtis' complaints of his own free will, and
then Curtis decrying AA's firing the designer "getting [the designer] fired"?

~~~
tptacek
It isn't. He asked if the guy was OK having his mail published. The guy said
yes. Anyone who says Curtis got him fired is saying a lot more about their
biases than about anything that happened.

~~~
w1ntermute
You're conveniently ignoring the fact that he explicitly called for AA's
designers to be fired without understanding how a big company operates:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4996236>

~~~
tptacek
I'm ignoring it because it's a stupid point. AA did not fire anyone because
Dustin Curtis is an authority on UX. They fired the guy --- stupidly --- for
airing dirty laundry on the blog of someone who just wrote a rant about their
UX.

Only on a nerd message board would this be a point that even bore argument.
What, are you scared Dustin Curtis is going to get YOU fired next? OOGA BOOGA.

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_sentient
I've never seen a major brand complete a redesign without at least a little
backlash. People have a natural preference for what's familiar, but in time
new brands tend to grow on you.

~~~
jinushaun
You must not be familiar with the history of the American Airlines logo. It's
iconic, like the cursive Coca-Cola logo. An evolution would've been better
than a complete overhaul.

~~~
_sentient
The same could be said about IBM, UPS or BP, all of which had iconic brands.
We now recognize and associate with the new brands, with minimal thought given
to what came before.

~~~
rhizome
"Had?" Check out the corner spot on IBM's page, they actually run though _all
their previous logos_ , winding up on the iconic one.

<http://www.ibm.com/us/en/>

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gojomo
If you future may require another taxpayer bailout, best to drape your
identity even more in the flag, to raise the emotional stakes in your favor.

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justin
I always thought it was un-American how bad American Airlines was. As a
country we should prohibit them from using our name...

~~~
rdl
Honestly none of the US legacy carriers are very good. Southwest, Alaska, and
Virgin America are really the only US flagged airlines I'd fly, given a
choice.

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jsnk
Hi, I am Dustin Curtis. I just throw vacuous statements around something to
sound profound and edgy.

~~~
tptacek
Markov Dustin Curtis hater strikes again!

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snogglethorpe
I actually like the "flag" on the tail... it's bold and I think a nice
abstraction of a flag; I like the way it completely fills the tail and doesn't
use gradients (the most annoying of modern airline logo fads..."hey guys... we
can do _shading_ now... go wwwwwild!1!").

The rest of the new design is complete crap, of course ("bluh" is a good
description, I think), especially that they got rid of the eagle, which was
bold, iconic, and managed to combined modernity with a sort of 1930s vibe
(i.e., "classic"). Other than the flag, the new design just reeks of risk-
averse 1980s corporate mediocrity.

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larsberg
American has been dead to me ever since they got rid of their 'more room
throughout coach' tagline. As a taller guy (though not _that_ tall), it
basically pushed me to United and their Economy Plus seating, which I love and
happily pay a little extra for.

I mean, it's not as nice as, say, SAS's normal economy class, but for a US
carrier, it's as good as I've gotten without flying business/first.

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rachelbythebay
It reminds me of older Greyhound bus logos. I guess if you're trying to make
people think you're a bus line in the sky, that's a good thing.

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josephpmay
For some reason, I never liked the American Airlines logo. Sure, it's
historic, but it always felt too corporate and stiff to me. A big part of what
I disliked about it was the colours. Overall, I think the new one is better
looking, however I understand why some designers despise this change.

~~~
rurounijones
As a foreigner I just look at the new design and cannot help but agree with
the overly patriotic pig lipstick comment at the end of the article.

It is almost like the designers were asked to "Remake the brand in a more
'America, Fuck yeah!' manner, that is trendy right? It will get people to
identify with us patriotically and forget out infamous service"

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markbao
At first, I hated it, but looking at the linked article, it's not terrible. I
prefer the iconic logo, but they could have done a lot worse with this
rebranding. It feels fresh and modern, rare for an airliner.

<http://www.aa.com/newamerican>

~~~
tptacek
I like the livery (unlike Curtis, who calls it "patriotic lipstick" but
ignores the positioning statement it makes, or the fact that the new livery is
much more easily identifiable than the old one, which just set the logo on the
tail and gave the planes racing stripes).

I hate the new logo.

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rdl
I don't have anything against the redesign. The one element of their branding
that I love (unpainted aluminum) remained, which makes up for anything else. I
do kind of miss the "AA" part, though, but the flag and eagle are nice too.

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Aloha
I like the new design, to be honest, I think it looks pretty great. On the
other hand, I like the existing logoscript better, and I find the flag-on-the-
tail placement, to be just plain tacky.

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awakeasleep
We gotta do some soul searching if this is hitting the HN frontpage.

~~~
tptacek
Why, because Kennedy's secret plan to stage false-flag military attacks on
gulf coast cities is germane, but graphic design isn't?

~~~
awakeasleep
My thoughts:

a) Assuming the link you mention was low quality, that doesn't justify low
quality here.

b) Interface design has a broad appeal, it involves reasoning about utility
and aspects of the human experience we all have access to, but often overlook,
like biases and perception. Graphic design involves subtler distinctions in a
subset of the above.

c) I enjoy visually understanding concepts and making comparisons. I like when
designers take an opportunity to represent their personal taste. Standing up
for your taste involves personality, your ability to put yourself in context,
and some vulnerability. That is real to me. This article contained none of
that depth-- only two words in the stub-- "corporate lipstick" referenced the
new design.

Whats your take on it?

