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Continental Airlines


tBBP

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As promised...here it is.

But first, a quick review of what I've done up to this point:

American Airlines

United Airlines

Northwest Airlines

US Airways

Delta Air Lines

Southwest Airlines

Midwest Airlines

Okay, I finally got this thing reconstructed. The uniform design for this actually came to me pretty easy once I settled on a certain style for it. Take one good look at this--for as simple and straightforward as it is, Continental's planes actually have one of the better liveries in the industry--which is saying a lot, considering the previous look. Tthis airline was born in 1934 as Varney Speed Lines. (Remember that name? Same man had a hand in the births of American, United, US Airways, and Delta.) Sometime in 1937, the new owner, Robert Six (I'm not playing--that was the man's real surname) changed the name to Continental Airlines--and moved its HQ to Denver. (This airline's HQ has been in quite a few spots. It's now anchored in IAH, or Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Yeah--how many airports carry the name of its main carrier in its title?)

Anyway, In 1968, that (in)famous "meatball" logo and livery showed up (take another look). The logo is supposed to depict jetstreams. Yeah, sure--whatever. Anyway, the following year, the airline launched it's first mainland-to-Hawaii route, which is why I chose 69. (Plus, I've already used "68" once--with United's throwbacks.)

This company's actually been through a lot of--stuff. Two bankruptcies, in fact. (Guess they beat the other carriers to the punch, huh?) In 1991 the current blue-and-gold livery was launched, along with a new globe logo, and in 1999, this airline won so many awards, including "Best Airline in the U.S.", along with "Best Place to Work", I decided to use the number 99 for my primaries. Oh, and by the way, the current CEO of this company, whose name also appears on these primaries, is one Larry Kellner.

Now back to that damn globe for a minute. (Yeah--this thing.) Seems simple, right? Folks--you have NO IDEA how much I had to go through to reconstruct that. That is what held this up in the first place. I fought through about 6 or 7 different designs for this uniform, and at one time considered just slapping the "Continental" wordmark up on the shells. Then I went between blue and white about a thousand times, before I just "man'd up" and undertook the arduous process of reconstructing that globe. I think it came out good. And oh by the way, the gold stripe on the helmets and pants of the primaries mimics the gold cheatline of the current livery.

I do like the colors in this, but I ain't completely sold myself on the retro third outfit for this--and it's mainly the helmet, although it came straight off the tail of the "meatball look". I'll let you guys' C&C decide where I take that. The numbers are straight black with no outlines, just like Continental's wordmark back in the day. And the "meatball" is red on the sleeves because it was also red on the fuselage of the plane. Too busy? Perhaps...but I'll see what the masses have to say about this. And though it may be hard to see (it's hard to see in the photo, too), the striping is gold, red, and orange. (Hmm...wonder if whoever thought up the Bucs' color scheme back in '76 had this in mind when he did so...)

SO...without any further ado...presenting, Houston-George Bush Intercontinental's own...Continental Airlines!

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C&C--let's go!

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

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After looking at the photo of the airplane, I had an idea of what the uni should look like. And you nailed it right on the head. I actually like the meatball logo on the retro. And the primary logo. WOW. Amazing job. I am glad you stuck with it, because it is cool to look at.

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The globe logo came out really well, Brooks. I couldn't help but wonder, though, what a full globe helmet logo (i.e. gridlines instead of striping) would look like for these uniforms. Still, I like the treatment of color and striping on these, and after seeing the throwback alternate, I'm all of a sudden hungry for meatballs...

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The globe logo came out really well, Brooks. I couldn't help but wonder, though, what a full globe helmet logo (i.e. gridlines instead of striping) would look like for these uniforms. Still, I like the treatment of color and striping on these, and after seeing the throwback alternate, I'm all of a sudden hungry for meatballs...

In reference to the "full globe head"--BELIEVE ME, that idea went through my head about 6,000 times. I even got to mocking one up--on paper. And, though it would have been a cool concept in theory, it just did not look right. Would have been way too busy with something so simple and clean. But I've still got that mockup somewhere in my work files...

MEATBALLS...when's lunch again? :D

I'm just glad that one's over. But then, this is one of the files I lost when my jumpdrive got jacked. And on the original draft, I just had a "Continental" wordmark on a blue shell. So sometimes maybe it is good to tear up the pasteboard (or get ya stuff jacked) and start from scratch. The globe...geez--that dastard globe. But hey--it DID come out good!

And, as promised, sometime later today, the other airline of the ATL shows up on this board. And that may be it for this week. I've actually been putting these out a lot quicker than I'd like, but then again, I MUST give the people what they want, right? Sometimes, though, I gotta make 'em WAIT FOR IT...

(Oh, and by the way: soon I'll be unveiling a special beta version of my Delta Air Lines concept set. The idea I have came up while I was reconstructing the original version. For those who are really good at finding subtle clues and hints, the direction of my AirTran third outfit MIGHT give you an idea of what I've got in store for that beta version...)

Coming soon in my Airline Football League Concept Series, in no certain order: America West (even though it's officially USAir now), Song (even though IT's about to be folded back into its mama), Air Canada, and of course, JetBlue.

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

|| dribbble || Behance ||

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Nice work again. Look forward to seeing more in the series.

Interesting trivia fact about Robert Six - he was married to Audrey Meadows, Alice on The Honeymooners.

Anyone interested in definitive, interesting airline histories should read the works of Robert J. Serling. For example, his book Maverick tells the Continental/Bob Six story. Among his other excellent works are Eagle, an outstanding history of American, From the Captain to the Colonel about Eastern, and The Only Way to Fly about Western.

Speaking of Western, there's an airline to think about doing. Their "Bud Light" scheme with the polished fuselages for the modern look and the Indian head scheme for the throwbacks would be very cool.

And about Robert Serling, you might have heard of his brother Rod, who did this old TV show called The Twilight Zone. ^_^

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