New AA Livery Not Set In Stone

richierich · Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:05 pm

Quoting flyingthe757 (Reply 143):
I would not go as far as saying it was universal disbelief??

Universal as in 100%? No. Universal as in widely viewed, yes.

Quoting flyingthe757 (Reply 143):
They needed a change, and did that really well. They got the US colours in, recreated the eagle, and changed the branding. On top of that they are changing the on board experience, and will be coming out of Cpt 11 shortly. This was needed, and In my opinion they succeeded.

There is no arguing taste and obviously there are few people who think this is a great livery. However, based on what I have read on this site and seen in the media, this livery was met with a giant "WTH were they thinking?" As I wrote earlier, I think it was a good time to come out with a new brand and a new product, but the execution and final result was very polarizing.

777way · Wed Apr 03, 2013 3:00 pm

Quoting PHLBOS (Reply 148):
That dark blue scheme did not age too well, especially on the Boeing planes.

They should have adoped metrojet livery instead rather than the current look.

PHLBOS · Wed Apr 03, 2013 3:34 pm

Quoting 777way (Reply 151):
Quoting PHLBOS (Reply 148):
That dark blue scheme did not age too well, especially on the Boeing planes.

They should have adoped metrojet livery instead rather than the current look.

Guess on my part, but MetroJet was not one of US' brighter shining moments and was already destined for the chopping block as far back as the aborted merger talks w/UA circa 2000. The last thing US wanted to do at the time was give any hint or reminder of the airline witihn an airline motif.

ckfred · Wed Apr 03, 2013 3:34 pm

I remember people complaining about the 3 Delta liveries since the iconic livery of the 1970s was replaced, starting in 1998. People thought the first one was too bland. The wavy gravy tail was weird, and the Eurowhite fuselage was too much of follow the crowd. The third was was too bland (again) and too much like UA, CO, and B6 (a shade of white with a predominantly blue tail).

But, it's the fact that DL went through 3 livery changes in 10 years. When you change branding frequently, it costs money, and it makes it hard for customers to identify the product.

Just last week, I saw a UA Express plane in the old battleship gray livery, along with mainline jets in the white-and-blue tulip livery. In that regard, the new UA livery still say CO to me, since CO adopted that livery nearly 20 years ago.

As I've said before, AA should have tried to come up with a modern take on the lightning bolt livery. But the new livery is high recognizable against all of the Eurowhite planes. And there is no doubt that the carrier is American, with the striped tail in red, white, and blue.

baw716 · Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:10 pm

The livery of the aircraft is not a trivial matter. It's all about the brand....
...and the tail has to go...it doesn't fit the rest of the livery. It's a bad 'marriage' of US Airways tail with the new AA logo.

The good news is that the fix is relatively easy. The new eagle can be put on the tail and that would reinforce the AA brand image they are building without much sacrifice.

I do agree if that is where they are headed, they may want to slow the process of painting the aircraft to lower the cost of repainting the tail. I wouldn't expect to see any of the USAirways aircraft painted (a la United) until this matter has been settled.

More to discuss I guess...
baw716

777STL · Wed Apr 03, 2013 6:06 pm

Quoting BN747 (Reply 123):
No, what I'm trying explain to you is what a CEO is signaling.

No, let's make something clear here - that's what you *think* he's supposedly signaling.

Quoting flyguy89 (Reply 124):
He was responding to a question asked by an employee, your theory would have much more weight if Parker had brought the topic up on his own, unprovoked, but he did not, he gave a diplomatic answer to a question he obviously didn't know the answer to. Frankly I wouldn't have expected any different as he's still trying to get the merger to move forward and he probably hasn't seen the numbers as to the costs of repainting vs. redesigning...etc.

Bingo.

I don't see Parker trying to evade or be deceitful at all here. He comes off as if he honestly doesn't know. He's in the process of trying to merge a couple of billion dollar airlines, I'm sure the livery on the aircraft is rather far down on the list of things he cares about right now.

AAIL86 · Wed Apr 03, 2013 6:51 pm

Quoting ckfred (Reply 153):
As I've said before, AA should have tried to come up with a modern take on the lightning bolt livery. But the new livery is high recognizable against all of the Eurowhite planes. And there is no doubt that the carrier is American, with the striped tail in red, white, and blue.

I agree with you 100%. The lightning bolt scheme is one of the best of all time. I understand that some people don't "get" the new tail. I admit I was surprised at how unorthodox this design was myself. But AA needed to do something bold and original (I would call this "original" because its very different from how other major carriers are approaching their livery choice). Look at airlines like Finnair – who had a beautiful livery that was very appropriate for the culture they operate in. Instead of building on that, they gutted it in favor of one of the most soulless liveries we’ve seen in a long time. AA’s new livery may not be to everyone’s taste, but it was bold and original and that’s why I support it.

[Edited 2013-04-03 11:51:40]

[Edited 2013-04-03 11:52:39]

TC957 · Wed Apr 03, 2013 7:15 pm

Ok, looks like we all agree to differ on AA's livery - again.... But come on all you graphic designers and armchair branding experts - let's see some of your renditions on how a future AA/US combined look should be then.
Looking forward to seeing your images.

rikkus67 · Wed Apr 03, 2013 9:28 pm

I think we can come to agreement, that the tail scheme in the redesign will continue to be talked about, and will be for some time.

Separately, the new marketing eagle logo and typefont are very classy. I had suggested a small tweak of the new Eagle logo, and have had a response back from AA ("passing on the suggestions to internal survey *not sure what THAT means*, thanks for your input).

The tail, while SEPARATELY stunning, just does not tie in with the rest of the branding...it's just too busy against the balance of the fuselage.

[Edited 2013-04-03 14:40:10]

ghifty · Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:10 pm

When BA first introduced their current livery, the flag on the tail went through a few revisions, correct?

I think AA could slowly clean up the livery based on customer/employee feedback without coming off as "instable" to the press. Their new livery isn't bad in message, but just execution. Smoothing up and simplifying the tail paint will do wonders.

Also, on that BA note.. remember their world tails scheme? What was the media response to them deciding to change their tail livery so quickly? The logo (speedmarque) remained the same, just as the new AA logo would remain (in a hypothetical tail makeover).

[Edited 2013-04-03 15:12:56]

PHLBOS · Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:12 pm

Quoting rikkus67 (Reply 158):
the new marketing eagle logo

FWIW & for grins & giggles; if one does a Google Image Seach for Greyhound Logo, a few images of planes bearing the new AA scheme do indeed show up among the various Greyhound logo images.

dirtyfrankd · Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:24 pm

I've had a chance to see the new AA livery a few times in person now and I gotta say, I think it looks pretty fantastic (including the tail).

questions · Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:08 am

Quoting rikkus67 (Reply 158):
I had suggested a small tweak of the new Eagle logo, and have had a response back from AA ("passing on the suggestions to internal survey *not sure what THAT means*, thanks for your input).

Well... what was the suggested tweak? Adding eyes?

IslandRob · Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:18 am

Quoting dirtyfrankd (Reply 161):
I've had a chance to see the new AA livery a few times in person now and I gotta say, I think it looks pretty fantastic (including the tail).

Same here. I hope they keep it! -ir

rikkus67 · Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:35 am

Quoting questions (Reply 162):
Well... what was the suggested tweak? Adding eyes?

As I posted above, it is very subtle. Just adding a proper forehead to the implied new Eagle/A logo:

I need to send this to AA... the eagle now has its eyebrow back!

LoneStarMike · Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:59 am

Quoting A36001 (Reply 66):
To me, nothing says America more than seeing the Stars and Stripes! Hell even I as an Australian had national pride on your behalf when I flew into LAX and saw your flag for the first time! And being an airline named American, maybe, just maybe the Stars and Stripes should play a feature role in the branding.

That's the thing, though. There aren't any stars in the livery. It's all stripes. I wish they'd just use the logo on the tail. The logo has grown on me. The tail has not.

The other thing about the livery that I'm not too crazy about is the placement of the word "American" on the fuselage. I think it would look better above the windows rather than how it is now.

Look at this photo The windows look like bullet holes shot through the word "American." And if some/all of the window shades are down it looks even worse - like the paint is already chipping.

LoneStarMike

aacun · Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:01 am

Im so sick of the bashing. I love the new paint job, the only thing I would change is I would paint the plane' s body more silver like. Aside from that, I hope it stays.

dirtyfrankd · Fri Apr 05, 2013 12:32 am

Just saw a 738 in the new livery today as well as a couple of CRJ-700s. The gray paint is actually shiny as hell, especially when the sunlight hits it. Tail looks fantastic as well. All you haters need to relax and move on!!

New AA Livery Not Set In Stone

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