In defence of Lufthansa’s branding redesign
Sometimes the most simple things are the best ones — And Lufthansa’s branding redesign (including its livery) is one case — although with a small flaw: the lack of yellow.
Many things have been said about Lufthansa’s new brand design and its new livery. The new livery itself is indeed a very controversial, because it ended up being somewhat different from the older livery, with many (like myself) mourning the lack of yellow in the airplane livery, others criticising that is too boring in comparison with the older livery. But, the new livery is growing up on me, showing that sometimes the simplest things are the good ones. Here is a defense of the new controversial brand redesign and of the new controversial livery.
The new livery is not too bland, but is also not too garish
Anything being bland not necessarily means that is bad. Sometimes the most garish liveries can be even horrible in comparison to simpler ones (however, there’s some airlines which not even have a livery, such as the case of China Eastern or Japan Airlines). The Lufthansa’s new livery can be a bit bland (may be because of being mostly “eurowhite”), but still transpires the spirit of the airline itself, since retains most of the components (the gracious crane logo — the “Kranich” — which is redesigned and enlarged; the blue colour in the tail, which is darkened and expanded to the bottom of the tail, for example), while making the livery cleaner, more elegant, more modern, and even more professional in comparison to the older livery.
And unlike Bernie Leighton (from Airways Magazine) says, the Lufthansa livery still evokes the history of the airline and evokes a modern Germany without being extremely patriotic, and also is still the proof that you don’t need to be opulent in details in order to evoke something. Other livery which does exactly that is the new Air Canada livery, which still evokes Canada (including with its characteristic maple leaf, which is also present in Canada’s flag). One of the criticisms which I have of the American Airlines’s 2013 livery is that is a bit too garish for me (I know that is designed to represent America and Americans, but the tail could have done in a simpler way).
Despite of the fact that I also like their retrojet (with cheatlines), I think that is a bit outdated, since the airplane designs have changed (making them naturally beautiful, like the Boeing’s 777 or even the 747 design, alongside Airbus’s A330 and A350XWB), thus allowing simpler liveries to be implemented without compromising its design (although some classical liveries, like TAAG Angola Airlines’s current one, still look good on modern aircraft like the 777).
The yellow, despite absent on the livery, still is part of the branding of the company
Despite the fact that the yellow is (unfortunately) out of the livery of the aircraft, the yellow will now be more present inside Lufthansa.
From the new crew uniforms to the airport signage (and even in a small part of the aircraft — in the entrances), passing through other more considerable revenue areas, even inside the cabins of the airplanes (including the tickets, the boarding passes themselves and the package of the airline food), and even in the publications of the airline, like those right after the unveiling of the new livery, the yellow has gained a much needed importance which seem to have been ignored for some time, making it even more special, like as a mean of orientation and differentiation of the airline, as is reported by Aviation News.
And I think the new brand design itself was focused to be more present in the newer technology platforms (smartphones, tablets, etc.) even better than the previous one, which dates from the 1980s (although it had some tweaks through its life).
But, there’s no beauty without its small problems: the lack of yellow in the livery is bothersome for some (like myself)
However, the new livery has a small problem: it loses the yellow which was present in the old livery, which is already making people feel discomfortable (in my case a bit, but just a bit). I would keep the basic shape and style of the new livery (I like the fact that the engines are painted in white instead of grey, it makes it more modern), making only a small tweak in the tail: retaining the current position and scale of the “Kranich”, but adding the yellow in the contours of the crane logo — a solution which can make it more vivid without compromising the overal cleaniness, modernity & elegance of the new livery.
Conclusion: Lufthansa made the right call in its revamping of its brand, but it could have been better
Overall, Lufthansa’s decision of revamping its brand and create a new livery is more than satisfactory.
The airline and Martin et Karszcinski, the company also responsible for the revamping of Lufthansa’s brand, masterfully made the brand redesign in a way which can make Lufthansa ready for the needs of the airline passengers of the future and ready for being better connected with the people who fly in the the airline than it is currently (although Lufthansa is already a 5-star airline by SkyTrax). The livery itself proves to be right in that direction, proving that simplicity in details can also be meaningful to the passngers who fly the airline and also elegant at the same time.
Although it could have been better, because the lack of yellow in the livery makes the livery a bit bland. Despite the livery itself being elegant and modern, I think the new livery could have been a bit more vivid than it is.
That’s what I’ve to say in this article about the very controversial new branding redesign and new livery of Lufthansa — Please follow me on Twitter (@TheO530CarrisPT is my username).
