Concept Revisited: Delta Air Lines

[tBBP]

Yeah...for those who've been paying attention, there's been sort of this rumor floating around that the critically acclaimed Airline Football League Concept Series could be making a comeback to the Concepts boards...anyone know anything about that?

For those who may have missed parts of it--or, maybe all of it, here's the previous TWENTY-ONE concepts in this series...yes, TWENTY-ONE:

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

Lufthansa

Hawaiian Airlines

Alaska Airlines

Hooters Air

The one we're revisiting here is the sixth in that list, and my former employer: Delta Air Lines.

For those who missed it, a while back Delta was contemplating making yet ANOTHER livery change (that'd be the jet's paint scheme for those who may not know), and in late April spy photos started popping up of Delta's proposed new livery. Had all of us airliner afficionados going (and in the "General Design" forum there is a discussion thread about this, started by skyaa1). That was, until we realized we were pretty much being jibed, being that the plane we were squabbling about was probably about the size of the average 6-year-old.

Of course, then the real thing rolled out, and it was a rumor no more...Delta Air Lines was officially going to the new rumored livery, along with (lesser-discussed) 3D-looking widgets reminiscent of this thing here...and really, when one thinks about it, I guess it could be a little "suble hint" of some sort...

Anyway...on to what you clicked in here to look at.

This is how most of you recognize Delta's planes; someone in here (and I know eactly who) referred to this tail as the "beach towel" and, worse yet, the "Delta Demon" ( you have to look really hard to see it, but it's there). You saw the "spy shots"; here is the illustrated version. Delta's aim in this? Aside from revamping its image, Delta's aiming to become a "global leader", and, as such, has chose to go with a more "global" design (read: European...pretty much the same route most American-founded automakers take when aiming to redesign their plain-jane mundane-looking vehicles to appeal to a wider audience). Uninspired? One could say so...but then, the more I looked at it when it first came out, the more it grew on me...well, all but the tilted forward-facing widget on the tail. That's a REAL departure from the norm for Delta (although that has been once before by Delta...for a short time in the early '60's...there' a pic in that discussion thread somewhere). So...let's see..."classic"-looking typeface, 3D-looking widget, rather simple (yet somehow very clean) livery design = Delta rebranding, as a more "globally oriented" airline...so long as your global travels take you across the Atlantic , as that is where most of Delta's international focus is concentrated.

So...what did I do with this? Well...my aim was to draft Delta's new image into an updated uni set, reflecting the same type of changes the airline did. There really isn't anything wild or exciting going on with this newest design, BUT, if you look closely, you will notice I made real good use of a prominent feature of Delta's new logo (I discussed it above, but if you missed it, then...you'll see it in the concept, hopefully ). My two major conflicts: the helmet, and just how much red I wanted to include. After fighting myself for a good hour or so, I went with the dark blue (navy?) shell, to better reflect the tail of the new aircraft (read my intro to the series in the link list at the top of this entry to get a better read of my "design logic" behind these concepts). The red in this concept set is all uniform throughout...you'll see.

Just to refresh...

This was thre previous Delta Air Lines concept design...

And THIS HERE, my friends...is the UPDATED version.

Enjoy! And let me know what you think...

Holla at me!

[cappital92]

Numbers are too skinny.

[kewp80]

Yeah, I'd either thicken the numbers or add an outline. I'd also like to see the stripe thats on the pants on the helmet too. Other than that looks great!

[tBBP]

Numbers are too skinny.

That was one of the MANY things I fought myself over with this...file that quandary under "Conventional" vs. "Un-conventional". Everything in me wanted to go with a "thicker" number...but somehow the idea came to me to utilise the "3-D" effect of the widgets for the numbers and striping (not sure if y'all caught that first time around). Why so thin? Well...check out the "Delta" title on the new livery. Maybe not the smartest line of logic I've used for crafting uniform elements, but regardless, it's what I went with. (That line of logic...the "3-D" thing...is also why the red is uniform for both--er, uniforms.) I went without the stripe on the helmet due to the fact that there is none on the tailfin of that new paint scheme (one of the lines of logic I drafted when I first started this series--it's better explained in the "American Airlines" link, which also contains the intro to this series.)

I ain'y exactly 100% sold on this design (more like 85%), but, nonetheless, I managed to take my sketches on this, thoughts and ideas I've had for a while, and bang this thing out in one day, from start to finish, and post it up on here. And I did all that...while alco-logically impaired. I think that's a new offense...CUI, maybe??? (Concepting Under the Influence... )

[averyj]

Numbers are too skinny.

CUI, maybe??? (Concepting Under the Influence... )

My parents did that after their wedding in 1992.

Wait, that was conception...

Never mind.