"Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft"...in a word, LUFTHANSA!

[tBBP]

Whew...man, I'm telling you--this series is wearing me OUT!!!

But it's folks out there that love it, and so I continue to bring it. (Well, make that most of the concepts...my most recent one, Air France, ain't seem to get NO love...but it's all cool. One out of 17 ain't bad!!!)

Okay...so here's what's done been shown already in the AFl series:

American Airlines

United Airlines

Northwest Airlines

US Airways

Delta Air Lines

Southwest Airlines

Midwest Airlines

Continental Airlines

AirTran Airways

America West Airlines

Song

Air Canada

JetBlue Airways

Independence Air

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

British Airways

Air France

And now, we'll hop on over to another part of Europe...that oh-so-wonderful land of Germany, home of Lufthansa. And here's the backstory on that:

The airline actually has origins dating back to 1926. It was borne out of the merger of two German carriers taht existed at the time: Deutsche Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr. During 1933, the airline was renamed Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft in 1933, and it is believed during that time a guy by the name of F.A. Fischer von Puturzyn (remember that name) coined the shorthand name still used today, "Lufthansa" (luft being the German word for "air", and "Hansa" referring to the Hanseatic League, a powerful alliance of trading guilds that existed during the medieval days in the Baltic Sea region). The airline was operating quite successfully, and had developed a pretty extensive route network; however, World War II struck, and as a result, all flights were suspened in 1945, and eventually Lufthansa as the world knew it then ceased to exist. Eight years later, after things in Germany started to settle back down (sort of), a new company, named Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf, was founded, in Cologne, Germany, to run air services. The following year, Luftag (shorthand for the company name) changed face and revived the more traditional name Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft, which, again, was shortened to Lufthansa (albeit this time a new Lufthansa), and the next year after that, in 1955, Lufthansa took to the air again. However, even as Lufthansa was going through a revival period, no flights operated into or out of West Berlin (which, as we all know, was divided at the time.) It wasn't until 1990, 45 years after World War II and just 25 days after East and West Germany reunified, that Berlin finally became a Lufthansa destination again. Today it's one of the world's leading airlines, as well as Europe's second-largest airline, behind Air France-KLM but ahead of British Airways.

Interesting stuff, right?

Well...let's get on with the concept conceptualization, shall we???

To start with, take a look at what Luftansa's livery looks like in present-day guise. This look had pretty much been the same since the '60's. The only thing different about the most previos livery was a blue stripe that ran through the windows of the fuselage. Either way...pretty plain. But then, since paint adds weight (and more weight = more FUEL), I guess one can see the reason for simple schemes. (During this process I realized just how opposite the design directions are going between the NFL--more complex and, uh, Nikie-fied even though Reeboks's outfitting them--and the airline industry, which, over the past few years, had been for the most part super-simplistic. Anyway, so you saw the curent livery. Not much to work with--again. But at least I finally got a new color to play around with--olden yellow! Anyway, Lufthansa's logo, which was originally designed by Deutsche Luft-Reederei in 1919 (it was the original logo of Deutsche Aero Lloyd, one of the two airliners that merged to create the original Lufthansa), appears on the helmets just as it does on the tail of Lufthansa's current livery. The helmets are blue, too, as are the primary home shirts. The numbers are yellow (change), offset by a San Diego-style outline, which is also yellow. (Study the tail logo and you can see where that idea came from.) The pants are white, with the encircled crane logo on the left front hip. The sleeve/collar ribbing of the blue shirt is also white (had to get it in there somehow, and that seemed the best way), and the socks are blue. For the white shirt, I used the same stlye numbers--except this time they're blue with a yellow offset and a blue San Diego outline. Everything else is the same as the homes. For the 3rd/alt, I referenced Lufthansa's 50th anniversary "retrojet" livery, seen right here. Kinda cool-looking lane, huh? Anyway, that striping you see along the fuselage (body) was morphed into a stripe on my silver pants. (Note the bottom of the stripe and study the nose of the "retrojet" closely.) The shirts are white, as usual, and so is the helmets. However, this time I did one things different" the design you saw on the retrojet's tail made it onto the sleeves of my 3rd/alt jersey. The crane itself is on the helmet. (Also note the lighter blue, as well.) The numbers and surname (the one I told you to remember if you read through this intro?) are italicized, just like the titles on the fuselage, in the closest font I could find to match. (And yes, that's a long surname--but it's also kinda cool too, no???) As far as the socks...well...I went with black socks here, and that idea came from looking at the nose of the retrojet. (Black isn't without precedent...if you'll notice it also outlines the stripe on the fuselage, too.) That's about the only part of that design I'm a bit iffy on...

But anyway, here it is now, in visual form:

LUFTHANSA!!!

(I better get some C&C on this one or else...!!! )

[maz]

Please, ive had enough german for one day. lol.

[Moser316]

The colors make this concept look more Swedish than German, but I can let that slide. Overall, your designs have been very simple and clean lately, and this one is no exception. Love the striping treatment on the alternate uniform, it looks like you broke away from the simplicity of the primaries.

[andymorrison13]

Great work as usual. The time and effort that goes into these is undenyable. When you so correctly capture the idea, as you usually do folks with no tallent such as myself have nothing to say that is relevent or true.

[Le Québécois]

well done...

now, just imagine the description of Fischer von Puturzyn 95 yards punt return ahahahhahaha

Auf Weidersehen mein freund

[SteveToms]

I have been following these for awhile, while some are kinda ehh(mostly because of the Airline) they are still all amazing artwork. I love this one a lot too

[BlueSky]

Not much to work with for the primaries, but the throwbacks are unbedingt phantastisch ! (Cut and paste here if necessary.)

That retro plane is one of the best ever. What a great paint job they had.

Great work as usual!

P.S. The throwback pants style works.

[Natsfan36]

love the alt......keep it up!!!!!! good all around

[Ben5]

As with all your concept bruce, very well thought out, executed and explained. I actually like the alt sleeves better than the primary version. Keep up the good work. I look forward to more concepts.