Hawaiian Airlines welcomes refreshed identity from Lippincott

Hawaiian Airlines is the leading airline in Hawaii, operating flights to major destinations in the Pacific, including mainland United States and Asia. This week, on May 1, it unveiled a new corporate identity, developed by Lippincott. This is part of an effort to expand the airline by opening up new routes and introducing new aircraft.

The previous identity had plenty of goodwill, so this is an iterative update that builds on its predecessor. The airline's symbol – the "Pualani" (flower of the sky) – has been freed from the flower holding shape and thus features more prominently in front of a sun on the tail fin. The livery is finished with a silver maile lei wrapping the fuselage. The friendly look reflects the welcoming "aloha spirit" associated with the islands.

Clean look for Rossiya Airlines

Rossiya Airlines is a Russian regional airline based in Saint Petersburg. Last month, they launched a new visual identity as part of an ongoing restructuring within its parent company, Aeroflot. The new look was created by Otvetdesign, also based in Saint Petersburg.

The combination of a swoosh, a plane and the the letter R in the the old logo has been simplified and cleaned up to form a more restrained mark. Otvetdesign performed a full redesign of the company, which included custom fonts and interiors of planes and offices. The planes were given a new white and red livery with a relatively detailed pattern covering the back of the fuselage and the tailfin.

LAN and TAM become LATAM, the airline of Latin America

The largest airlines in Chile and Brazil, LAN and TAM, merged a couple of years ago to form the LATAM Airlines Group. The two airline brands have remained in use and LATAM was merely a holding company, until yesterday when new LATAM brand was unveiled. The new corporate identity was developed by Interbrand.

The LATAM name is not only a union of the merger partners' names, but also an abbreviation of Latin America. It thereby allows the brand to claim the entire region as its home and market.

Interbrand developed a logo that can work in different settings, including as 3D animation. Its shape is a not overly literal interpretation of the shape of the continent, with lines alluding to flights taking off across the world.

Alitalia takes off with refreshed identity

Alitalia is Italy's flag carrier and like most of the old legacy players has suffered from perpetual problems in recent decades relating to changing airline market. One major reorganisation was carried out this year, when Etihad Airways bought a 49 percent stake in the company. Yesterday, Alitalia revealed an updated visual identity as part of these ongoing changes. The revelation was part of an event involving 1,500 employees Rome's Fiumicino Airport.

Alitalia's brand identity has remained remarkably stable over time. The original tailfin symbol introduced back in 1969. An update in 2005 gave the logo a more "dynamic" shape by slanting it, but the old logo is still widely used. The 1969 look was designed by Landor Associates, and they were brought onboard once again to design the new look.

The new logo keeps the same basic concept, but the 60s typoface has been updated. The new typography is described as conveying confidence and assertiveness. On the livery, the green border that extended from the tailfin across the fuselage is gone, as the stylised A on the tailfin is larger. The fuselage now bears a colour called "warm ivory".

Wizz Air refreshed by Futurebrand

Wizz is a major Hungarian budget airline that operates in much of Central and Eastern Europe. This week, on the eleventh anniversary of its inaugural flight, the airline unveiled a refreshed corporate identity and livery, created by Futurebrand. The airline says it now has "a fresh, more vibrant, sophisticated look and feel".

Classics: Air Canada, 1964

Air Canada is the largest airline in Canada, founded in 1937 as Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA), a name it kept using until about fifty years ago when the current name was adopted. Air Canada was originally the French name for the airline, used in conjunction with the TCA moniker for several years until the latter was dropped in 1964, legally changing the airline's name on January 1, 1965.

Part of that transformation was the development of a new corporate identity, revealed to the public in October 1964. Air Canada contracted Stewart Morrison Roberts (later known as Stewart & Morrison), one of Canada's leading brand consultants at the time. They developed a modern identity draped in the national colours, red and white.

The logo is a new take on the encircled maple leaf and was designed by Hans Kleefeld, a German-born graphic designer who was creative director at SMR at the time. They naturally decided to keep the maple leaf, but stylised it and added a broken circle that starts at its stem. The lettering was designed to be uncluttered.

Island Air has another go at a logo

Island Air is a Honolulu-based airline that serves the Hawaiian islands. This month it has formally introduced a new logo, created by Wall-to-Wall Studios in Honolulu.

The previous identity, created by Clark/Huot, was introduced quite recently in July 2012. It wasn't particularly well received, with Brand New naming it on of the worst new identities that year. The new logo features an iiwi bird.

Envoy, a new name for American Eagle Airlines

This week, on January 14, American Airlines announced that their regional carrier subsidiary American Eagle Airlines would change its name to Envoy. A logo was unveiled at the same time. This is done to give the company its own identity and to distinguishit from the American Eagle brand, which is used by American's regional carrier partners.

The new name launches in spring 2014. The airline will continue using the "American Eagle" brand and livery for its flights, with an "Operated by Envoy" tag to be added later.

New logo: Aurora Airlines

Last month, on November 6, Russia's Aeroflot Group unveiled a new airline, created by the combination of two smaller airlines based in the far-eastern part of Russia SAT Airlines and Vladivostok Avia. The airline will be called Aurora Airlines and its brand was developed by Landor Associates.

The hope is that the combination of two regional carriers will create a more efficient traffic system for the entire region. Inspired by cave paintings, the new icon has been abstracted to an infinity symbol with smooth curves.

New logo: Iberia

Iberia is the national airline of Spain, incorporated in 1927 and still the country's largest airline. Today, it is owned by International Airlines Group, which also owns British Airways. After a few weeks of leaks to the press, the airline officially unveiled a new corporate identity today, due to launch in November. The rebrand was handled by Interbrand.

The previous identity with its IB mark and striped livery had survived ever since 1977 with only minor changes. The new logo evolves the mark into a tailfin, controversially dropping the royal crown in the process.

New logo: Tigerair

Tiger Airways is a Singepore-based budget airline with flights to destinations in Asia and Australia. This week, on July 2, it shortened its name to Tigerair to reflect changes within the company. It was created by a Singaporean agency called The Little Secret Agency.

The leaping tiger from the old logo has been replaced by a friendly wordmark with rounded letterforms and a subtle orange smile.

New logo: Avianca

Avianca and TACA, two major airline groups in Latin America, merged back in 2009, creating a holding company that includes the former flag carriers of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Since then, they've spend a few years integrating the two groups while the old brand names were retained. That ended yesterday, May 28, when Avianca became the group's primary brand.

Both airlines have previously used bird symbols (a condor in the case of Avianca) and the new symbol pays some tribute to that. It can also be seen as a map of the Americas.

It has previously been reported that Lippincott aided the airline in selecting the name. Local media are crediting Lippincott and Sancho BBDO for the design work.

New logo: Hop!

The Air France Group owns three regional airlines – Brit Air, Regional and Airlinair – that are about to be united under one banner to communicate a clearer offer. As revealed yesterday, January 28, the combined airline will be named Hop!. It will commence operations on March 31 with 530 flights per day using 98 aircraft. The new brand was developed by Brandimage, who have been Air France's partner for several years.

The name should evoke speed, ease and agility. The logo is a simple red wordmark with a slanted exclamation mark. The latter is said symbolise and aircraft taking off, but it also evokes a sense of metaphorical takeoffs. It will also be part of the tailfin decoration. There's also a prominent "by Air France" alongside the fuselage that endorses the brand.

New logo: American Airlines

This morning, local time, American Airlines, one of the largest airlines in the United States, and the world, unveiled a new livery and corporate identity.

The new identity was designed by FutureBrand and is part of an ongoing effort to modernise the airline. It preserves the colours of the American flag, but replaces the polished metal from the previous livery with silver paint. In 2011, the airline ordered a large amount of new aircraft, made from composite materials that meant the polished metal look had to be abandoned.

American Airlines has also been given a new icon that embodies its name, called the "flight symbol". As previous symbols, it includes a soaring eagle, but the new one also has a star and a stylised letter A. The tailfin features and interpretation of the American flag.

From the standpoint of graphic design history, this marks the end of one of the final great corporate identities from the 1960s. Designed by Massimo Vignelli and featuring a Helvetica wordmark and polished "silver bird" livery, this corporate identity had remained essentially unchanged since its introduction in 1968, more than four decades ago.