Delta Air Lines Ditching the "Beach Towel"

[BlueSky]

Thankfully, Delta is dumping that goofy "curtains" tail design, at least according to this story in the Atlanta paper.

The current design never made sense. Why would a company do away with a symbol (the "widget") that identifies its brand worldwide in favor of...well, whatever you call what's on the tail now?

[TheCyrus]

The "Flowing Fabric" looks a hell of a lot better than what they're changing it to:

[BlueSky]

That can't be a final design. If so, you're right, it's worse, which I really didn't think was possible.

[dfwabel]

I guess it is now a true, "Flying Widget". FOs worldwide might be pleased. I guess all this is to reintroduce the airline as the get out of bankruptcy at the end of the month. It will be their third new livery in the past 10 years.

[tBBP]

The "Flowing Fabric" looks a hell of a lot better than what they're changing it to:

You can't be serious...

...that CAN'T be what they're putting on the tail...

...that's like half a little PIECE of widgets...

...3-D style...

...against a darker blue background (yes, that used to be one of their colors until they lightened it, but still)...

...and if that IS the final design, then I think THESE folks might have something to say about it:

Anyone besides me see a similarity (short of the 3-D effect)?

(Real quick: can someone tell me why I still even care about what my former employers are doing with the paint on their planes?)

That could have been thought up in two minutes...and it does NOTHING to distinguish Delta from anyhting esle out there visually...unless they want a whole lot of crooked necks as the planes fly by, cuz that's about the only way you'd be able to make out the widgets at first sight (or even second)...

Also, and I don't know if it's just because it's a dark shot, but if they're changing the underbelly paint from unpainted to that dark blue, it'll damn near duplicate the recent moves of USAir and United with their paint...not to mention JetBlue, which also had bark blue underbellies.

Imma have to do some more investigating on this here...

[tBBP]

Okay...now that I've poured through the a.net site tryna get insider info on this, I have a report.

This isn't "final" yet, but it sure sounds a helluva lot like the article posted in this thread describes.

Guess I had to see it in a full-scale (computer-illustrated) version:

And now that I've seen THIS, I think this has some potential to grow on me...and maybe a lot of other people.

Other notable remarks from the thread link posted above:

- Font change. In the early '60s Delta used a similar font, albeit super-oblique. This one does look cleaner and a lil' more "businesslike", if uninspiring.

- Forward-facing widget. This isn't entirely without predent. back in the early 60's (again), the widget was actually depicted on the livery facing forward (deep into that thread article someone has a picture of it). Also, the few people I still keep in touch with from my days as a DAL ramper tell me Delta's new marketing schematic is "upward and forward"...and thus, that could be the reason the widget is depicted the way that it is.

-Speaking of said widget, it's all red now. Now, viewed by itself, that's really a radical change (well, that and the 3-D effect) for Delta. Other than that, not much can really be inferred from that.

That is, UNTIL, you realize that the way that widget is depicted (regardless of representation of marketing schematic) shares entirely TOO MUCH similarity with this:

Now, anyone who's been following airline news recently knows there's been all kinds of talks about mergers and what not--and the fact Delta just fought off one. There's also been a LOT of talk about a DL/MW merger. I'm just SAYING...

Want me to take that conspiracy theory a lil' further? Check out the winglets (the little pieces sticking up on the ends of the wings) on the Delta illustration here:

...and the NW photo above.

I'm just SAYING...you know...

[LMU]

The Delta fabric look didn't make sense. It was the Serbian flag for crying out loud!

[AndrewPF]

doesn't bother me...almost kinda like an alternate uniform for a 747

[BlueSky]

About the new scheme, they're idiots at Delta (I worked there too, Bucco). WHY change the widget to all red? That means redoing not just the aircraft but every piece of widget-adorned paper, signage, equipment, and uniform at the airline! Besides that, it's ugly in all red. BTW, here's the original "forward widget"...

Thanks for finding those illustrations of the new scheme. I didn't realize the belly was blue, thought it was bare metal looking blue 'cause of the low light in the hangar pic. Between the red widget and the plain all-caps font, this look is only an upgrade because the "Delta Demon" (aka "beach towel") was so bad.

Imagine the new livery with a white tail and the widget done exactly the same way they have it but with the original blue top/red bottom. That would have been sharp.

Do you guys know about the Delta Demon? Look closely at the area of light blue and dark blue towards the front of the tail and you can see the light blue as an eerie, elongated face and the dark blue as eyes, nose, and mouth. It's like the FedEx arrow, once you see it, it becomes a lot more obvious every time you look.

[BlueSky]

Spy shot?

NOT! Though the shot above looks pretty convincing!

These are from the thread on airliners.net that Bucco B found. Makes me question whether what we're seeing is the final design.

Here's somebody's concept based on the "official" design and it's better IMHO though I still think they're making a huge error to go with an all red widget:

[tBBP]

Here's somebody's concept based on the "official" design and it's better IMHO though I still think they're making a huge error to go with an all red widget:

Now THAT could work. It harkens back to Delta's early '60s-mid-80's scheme--one that I actually liked. Signified the times when Delta was the best thing flying in the air (to hear Ophrah Winfrey tell it, anyway)...better times for Delta, you know, like what they're trying to get back to. Time will tell if we (or at least I) can come to accept the all-red widget.

(oh...and skyaa1, Delta's been in the process of changing over and redistributing ALL their marketing materials for a very long time...the full-scale unveiling of all of it, to include a completely new website, from what the folks I used to work with tell me, will come the first day of May. Oh...and I think your hotlinks died on you.)

[BlueSky]

Hotlinks?

[tBBP]

About the new scheme, they're idiots at Delta (I worked there too, Bucco). WHY change the widget to all red? That means redoing not just the aircraft but every piece of widget-adorned paper, signage, equipment, and uniform at the airline! Besides that, it's ugly in all red. BTW, here's the original "forward widget"...

Thanks for finding those illustrations of the new scheme. I didn't realize the belly was blue, thought it was bare metal looking blue 'cause of the low light in the hangar pic. Between the red widget and the plain all-caps font, this look is only an upgrade because the "Delta Demon" (aka "beach towel") was so bad.

Imagine the new livery with a white tail and the widget done exactly the same way they have it but with the original blue top/red bottom. That would have been sharp.

Do you guys know about the Delta Demon? Look closely at the area of light blue and dark blue towards the front of the tail and you can see the light blue as an eerie, elongated face and the dark blue as eyes, nose, and mouth. It's like the FedEx arrow, once you see it, it becomes a lot more obvious every time you look.

I don't know if you tried linking from pictures on that site or not and then the "wings of the web" image came up. (That's what that is called...whenever you link directly from another page or website..."hotlink".)

Sorry bout the confusion.

[dfwabel]

I guess that they, like United during their Chapter 11, changed livery as well. It will make since for all there current 737-800s and many of the Song planes which still have the lime green livery, like the one I saw at SFO last weekend. I stopped flying Delta as my primary carrier in 2004, when they closed SFW as a hub. I wonder if this means that the flight attendents and gate agents have to change clothes for their third time in about six years?

[tBBP]

I guess that they, like United during their Chapter 11, changed livery as well. It will make since for all there current 737-800s and many of the Song planes which still have the lime green livery, like the one I saw at SFO last weekend. I stopped flying Delta as my primary carrier in 2004, when they closed SFW as a hub. I wonder if this means that the flight attendents and gate agents have to change clothes for their third time in about six years?

You're about a year late on that...Delta's gate/ticketing/flight attendant staff all got new uniforms last May.

(But if you stopped flying Delta so long ago, I guess that'd be why you probably didn't know.)

And they look a helluva lot better than that charcoal mess they were stuck with the past 4 or 5 years before that.

[BlueSky]

I don't know if you tried linking from pictures on that site or not and then the "wings of the web" image came up. (That's what that is called...whenever you link directly from another page or website..."hotlink".)

Sorry bout the confusion.

No prob, I know about hotlinks but didn't look back far enough to see the post you meant. I fixed it with some other images that aren't as good but should stay put. Thanks for the heads up.

[Pharos04]

for some reason all I can think of when i see that tail design is this:

but with a little strip out of it.

[tBBP]

for some reason all I can think of when i see that tail design is this:

but with a little strip out of it.

Maybe a (not so) subtle plea for, oh, I don't know...a little break?

"Hey Citgo: we'llfly your symbol on that big fin sticking out of our a$$es if you let us get the hookup on some jet fuel, eh? Hey?wait...Hugo! We're serious!!!"

Okay I need to stop...

[BlueSky]

It's official - the Citgo scheme is flying! It looks better in daylight than it did in the hangar but altogether it's pretty uninspired. And why in God's name they changed the widget itself - which necessitates changing every last thing in the company with a widget on it - I'll never know. Fiscal common sense appears to escape them. Anyway, the new paint:

[thinkkre8tiv]

It's official - the Citgo scheme is flying! It looks better in daylight than it did in the hangar but altogether it's pretty uninspired. And why in God's name they changed the widget itself - which necessitates changing every last thing in the company with a widget on it - I'll never know. Fiscal common sense appears to escape them. Anyway, the new paint:

Tony did an amazing review on this. I actually like the new look. Very simple and elegant.

http://www.identityworks.com/reviews/2007/delta.htm