It’s not very often that a new corporate identity catches my attention as much as the new American Airlines logo did two months ago. Created by FutureBrand, the iconic eagle logo has evolved into a sleek and stylistic representation of the old mark, while breaking free of it just enough to signify a new beginning and a clear path forward. Job well done! I was truly looking forward to creating a series of stock illustrations featuring this new brand language.
Now that I’ve completed the set, I have to admit that I’ve got a love / hate relationship with it. As I mentioned above, the visual designer in me thinks that it’s visually brilliant. But as a 3d modeler who needed to integrate it into a set of pre-determined objects and situations, it was a royal pain.
The problem is that this logo is extremely linear and vertical – which does not easily fit my existing rendering templates. Another issue is that the logo was designed to look 3d – without actually being 3d! So that means there is a bit of awkwardness at some angles, taking on the appearance of a once multi-dimensional graphic that was smashed flat as a pancake by a passing car.
That led me to try and actually build a 3d model of this logo, but again – it lost all of it’s identity at certain angles and it no longer looked as good as it does straight-0n. I really want to show you what I mean, but I’m too embarrassed to post the pics…
Below is the series of illustrations that I came up with. There aren’t too many here that I feel are truly groundbreaking, as most are mapped onto some of the same objects/templates that I often for my series of stock editorial illustrations. The odd proportions of the mark (as mentioned above ) is the primary reason for this – but I still think these should be useful for blog and travel writers who need American Airlines themed illustrations for their articles.
Do you make these trophies? We are in to making an American Airlines presentation trophy with new logo (isn’t it sharp?)….were considering stacking up 1/400 scale diecast airline models up into an 9″ diameter tube, how to to this is yet to be determined. We work for this airline and all the way back to the early days of American West. This is an important project. Any suggestions? RSVP asap please and thanks. LUV YOUR WORK! Am one of the designers here at Merestone.
Thanks for the compliments on my work – I really appreciate it. Unfortunately, no, I do not make these trophies. I just create the 3d illustrations! 🙂 I would suggest talking to a local exhibit design company to design and fabricate something for you. I used to work for an exhibit house and we always enjoyed taking on smaller projects such as this. I’d imagine that not every exhibit design company would do it, but it wouldn’t hurt to call around. Good luck!