intotheair wrote:VC10er wrote:airplanedriver6 wrote:
FYI, it was designed by PriestmanGoode who also has done all of UAL’s other recent branding including the new cabins.
https://www.priestmangoode.com/project/the-new-united-livery/
Gosh! How did I miss that! I never even thought to look as PriestmanGoode is not a branding agency (branding as in identity). They are industrial designers who develop branded interiors) . But- every agency says they do everything! Still, it’s rarely the case that the agency gets the full credit good or bad, it’s the client. The best work I believe I’ve done I credit the client for approving it.
And the story reads as a perfect post rationalization. Which EVERY agency does: everything gets written as “this is what we wanted from the start, methodically planned and came out as planned” - when 9 out of 10 times the recommended work resides on digital files!
I think this is also a good explanation for how the new livery turned out the way it did. Had UA gone back to Lippincott (the designer of the globe and CO identity, as well as new DL, WN, and others), Pentagram (PMUA), or any other classic brand agency, then we probably would have gotten a more inspired result.
It’s became actually quite obvious to me once I found out it was PriestmanGoode. Management had probably formed a solid relationship with them. Management clearly was not in the market for a big change, like Green Cathay to Brush wing, or Etihad to something breakthrough. PG probably was in a great position to do a refresh, they already had a lot of experience working with the great limitations of the CO globe and successfully translated it into a 3D element within their industrial design.
It made little sense to put out an RFP to the more well known branding/identity experts, ALL of whom would have been itching to create a real brand mark for United.
Lippencott is an EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE brand strategy firm that’s modeled after a business consulting firm: baby blue suits yellow ties. Lippencott has an “art department” more than being a design agency. Pentagram and Landor (or Landor once upon a time) was a design agency at its core. Many brand strategy people at Landor struggled as Landor’s DNA was designed, applied scientifically to deliver a brand positioning. After Creatives lost the lead at Landor, many strategy people lusted to change what Walter had created. Pentagram has NEVER lost its way as a high holy land of design. Lippencott sees the actual DESIGN as just a something necessary, they pride themselves in developing the winning business strategy and driving idea behind a corporation. Lippencott does not even attempt to do consumer products. Landor used to have very strong Corporate and Brand Identity (Packaging Design) - they fed off each other’s experience and ideas and design.
I would be curious what Peter Knapp and Claude Saltzberger would think of the new UA. (Claude did the BA Landor livery) Peter did Etihad. Peter LOVES pushing airlines beyond the traditional.
Everything starts with the client: what they brief the agency to do. The client is also last: as David Ogilvy famously said “clients get what they deserve”
When I’m in a Polaris lounge, I personally think it has put United into a league they were never in before. While PG did a beautiful job, however it was UA who “APPROVED” it and spent the money to execute it correctly.UA could have just as easily cut the budget, diluted the concept and design for a Polaris lounge, or UC or Polaris seat and we would not be “FEELING IT” as we do.
One example is: the removal of the PG front bulkhead powerfully branded that cabin. Going from a Polaris 77W to a 787-10, the cabin feels less special. That is one way a financial person can dilute or undercut the longer term game of creating a uniquely branded experience.
It’s also why a current UA 737-800 is like flying on a no-name charter flight to catch a cruise ship.
