EX-YU airlines fail on branding

EX-YU airlines in need of a visual makeover

From dots to stars and squares, liveries of the national carriers in the former Yugoslavia cannot be described as imaginative or captivating in any way, shape or form. The colours and design motifs that are applied to commercial aircraft are one of the most visible and familiar expressions of an airline’s brand and corporate identity. EX-YU Aviation News spoke to Jonny Clark, an airline brand specialist and editor of the DesginAir portal, to share his thoughts on how EX-YU airlines stack up in their branding.


In its two decade long history, Croatia Airlines has changed its livery once, although both have placed focus on the stylised checkerboard national symbol. Mr. Clark believes Croatia Airlines has done the best out of all the EX-YU national carriers when it comes to design and branding. “A modern and clean livery that owns the whole aircraft. The square graphic is easily identifiable and the sky blue underbelly is contemporary”, he says. The livery first appeared in 2004 and was created by Ivanka Ivanković Prlić, a corporate designer based in Zagreb.


On the other hand, Adria Airways’ livery has stayed mostly unchanged since the post-Yugoslav period. In his professional opinion Mr. Clark notes, “The Adria Airways livery is one of the best of the five liveries on offer here. Excellent use of the fuselage along with a unique typeface make for a brand that has a similar look and impact to that of Finnair. The "A" logo is also appealing and clever, creating a heart shape, subtly reinforcing a feeling of attraction to the brand, and also creating an arrow, a symbol of movement and direction”.


Montenegro Airlines has also kept its livery and branding unchanged since launching flights in 1997. Mr. Clark believes the livery has its shortcomings but also great potential due to the logo featured on the tail of its jets. He adds, “A brilliant little logo holds this design together. Deep blue with white is smart and confident. The eagle logo, as great as it is, sadly feels a little disconnected from the rest of the aircraft”.


B&H Airlines, like its predecessor, Air Bosna, opted to use the national flag as its livery. However, the editor of DesignAir believes the carrier might be going just a little over the top and should have chosen a more subtle approach to incorporate national elements in its branding. “Whilst airlines all try to show patriotic elements (just look at American Airlines' new tail fin) clever airlines try not to over play it, making them more appealing to all travellers from all countries. I would have hoped for more of a creative spin to this livery, with a more striking logotype”.


Finally, Jat Airways’ corporate brand leaves a lot to be desired. The airline has gone from its classic “egg” livery in the 20th century to the popular “flame/wing” livery of the troubled 90s to the “dot/traffic light” livery in use since 2003. The design was chosen through an international competition won by the Kontrapunkt and Armada studio from Slovenia. At the time, the design by Eduard Čehovin was branded as “dynamic, functional, attractive, somewhat odd but recognisable”. However, not many would agree with those words. “Jat's livery sadly doesn't work. Far too much white gives the impression it's a temporary livery or even a wet lease aircraft. The dots give an almost clown like visual and the text is underplayed and appears like a standard typeface. Whilst a cheap livery to produce even adding colour to the nacelles would offer a better grounding to the airframe. Although in my opinion, this really just needs a redesign”, Mr. Clark says. The “dot” livery was supposed to go hand in hand with the airline’s slogan at the time - “I fly with Jat, full stop”.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:05

    The best livery was on the Macedonian Airlines, those nice colors and sun shape tail looked gorgeous

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      I agree.. MAT had the best colors!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:42

      Palair had the best colours,especially on the DC-10 they
      leased from JAT !
      Ex Yu Aviation published an old photo with her some time ago...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:15

      Palair never had DC-10, that was Photoshop

      Delete
  2. frequentflyer09:37

    Slow news day Admin?

    I'd be more concerned about the INTERIOR fittings of the plane (including legroom!) and whether the airlines are safe to fly - a passenger spends far more time looking at the inside than outside paint when flying!

    The headline is a little misleading too - he doesn't say anywhere in what is presented that any of these regional airlines need a makeover, or to spend more money (that they don't have) updating the dots or squares on the tailfin...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:43

      +1: a comparison of the interiors would be nice next time there is a slow news day...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:59

      & comparison of the free sandwiches and which coke tastes the best...

      Delete
  3. Anonymous10:12

    I have to say I completely and utterly dislike all eurowhite schemes. They are the most drab and boring things tou will have ever seen. I have to say, compared to ex yu airlines, some mainline carrier schemes are much worse e.g AF, IB, TK and a few others. JU needs a complete redesign anyway. OU is alright but there is too much white same opinion for Adria.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:17

    Majority of EX-YU companies are just copying CTN design, which is unique,good and easily recognizable.

    Jat realized that CTN looks lot better and then they changed their widely recognized JAT to stupid dots.

    Adria also has very good livery.

    Others to not mention at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:34

      The 90's JU livery was far better than the present one and that the Croatian one - by far. No one in the world knows how the hell Croatian planes look, while Jat was highly recognizable.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:24

      Of course Jat was not recognizable because most used shame is combination of blue, red and white (Air France, British, Aeroflot, Delta, Transaero...).

      Delete
  5. Anonymous10:40

    Next time there is a no news day, please compare the interior cabins on all the ex-yu carriers!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Btw, Adria's tail it represents linden leaf, national sybmol of Slovenia but now rather adobted as heart.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:54

    I think all the ex-yu national carriers have attractive distinctive liveries! If the so called expert
    Mr Clark knows better, then let's see him put pen to paper and draw some designs!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:11

    Why i cant troll but purger can. It is not fair!

    ReplyDelete
  9. JU520 BEGLAX11:13

    Too many worldwide brand airlines have boring liveries....current new one of Swiss is one of the worst ones.. so ex YU airlines are in good company...
    on the other hand OU and JP are not that bad. And Mr. Clark is right, the best branding including cabin service, website etc is Croatia Airlines.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous11:20

    well it might be a slow news day but i find it to be a interesting article.however when it comes to design people have very different opinions and ideas.(just look the at discussions on airliners.net about the new american airlines design; i find it horrible, but it's my subjective opinion).
    about Adria, they introduced that livery back in the 80's (i believe when they got A320s;i might be wrong, so if anyone is better informed please correct me).so Adria having the livery for such a long time it is Finnair looking similar to Adria not vice versa :) (AY changed their livery short time ago).
    i'm not an expert about the topic so my thoughts are subjective here;i find all the exYU liveries to be a bit boring, lack if imagination.i'm not a fan of eurowhite either.i love for example Avianca, the new SBA (Santa Barbara airlines) livery, the old AA metal livery etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JU520 BEGLAX18:01

      the JP livery was changed in 1989 when the new A320 arrived. For that time it was a great change and honestly I still like it today

      Delete
    2. Purger00:20

      +1

      Delete
  11. Anonymous11:26

    I actually find this an interesting read and would rather read about it then Jat’s new aircraft or airport takeovers. I think ex-Yu airlines have horrible liveries which are completely based around being as cheap as they can get. The person that chose Jat’s livery and said it was dynamic and attractive should get their eyes checked.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PlusOne11:37

      +1

      The Jat Airways non-news are particularly boring, in my opinion. Sure, if something actually happens I would like to read about it, but it's the case of the girl that cried wolf not three times, but three hundred times.

      I found this piece more interesting than many other pieces that get posted, but I thought in the end it was a bit 'light.'

      Comparisons of cabins and services would also be welcome.

      Delete
  12. Not a bad way to mix it up a bit Ex Yu Aviation, well done!

    I honestly do not think there is anything wrong with OU livery, I think it ticks all of the boxes when it comes to identifying what type of airline OU would like to be. Remember most airlines which have busy Livery's are low cost carriers which none of the Ex Yu airlines are.

    I think Jonny Clark hit got it right here and like frequentflyer already noted, the heading is miss leading because I did not read him make one bad comment about Adria or Croatia airlines branding.

    So why has the Ex Yu than as a whole failed in its branding? This on the other hand is a bit disappointing on your behalf Admin.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous12:17

    The title of this post doesn't really reflect the content. 'Ex-yu airlines fail on branding' is a tad sensationalist (in style of some of the other regional daily media) if the post actually says two are doing well (Croatia and Adria), one has a good logo, but can improve on the brand (Montenegro), and two are not doing so well in terms of brand (JAT and BH)...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:35

      Just realised my post sounded very negative - didn't really mean it like that. I love reading this blog otherwise and think it is quite objective and impartial otherwise!

      Delete
  14. Anonymous13:52

    Where there is no identity there can't be brand. So far the worse brands around are JA and JU and the "best" (among the worst) are Montenegro Airlines and Adria. Croatia is so so.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The dude in the artical is talking crap about the Croatian paint without knowing what it is, he just says cool dot's. .. yeah right. It stil stands for a main shield aka shahovnica theme. Most of europe dont know about it, but all Croatian & ex-yu does. A normal person can see it as a dumb checkerboard but we know better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:50

      This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. This simply is not true!

      The U was the symbol of the Croatia fascist movement during the second world war, a symbol which has been band in Croatia since 1990. As previously mention before but removed by admin in a very distasteful manner someone wrote a brief history of the Croatian checkers and how it dates back to the 7th century and became the official symbol of Croatia in the year 925 (more than 1000 years ago)by King Tomislav. A king who actually helped defended Serbia against Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria.

      Since the checkers are a historical national Symbol of Croatia and are applied to Croatia Airlines aircraft, than it is important that we discuss the history of it here in that context and dispel any attempts to portray the checkers as a fascist symbol because again, this is just simply not true!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:31

      Q400, spot on man, some individuals still live in the past, there's little hope for them.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous15:00

    I wish JU would bring back the classic "egg" livery, but I know that will never happen. Politics aside, that logo had brand awareness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:58

      Yes it was actually very good.As good as Coca Cola
      or Adidas,Puma.
      You always can paint a plane into a retro livery again!
      :D

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:39

      Jat's fleet are all retro!

      Delete
  17. Anonymous15:07

    How can it be a slow news day - what about FZ cancelling SJJ and Serbia ratifying air agreement with Turkey?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:20

      Yes… because Serbia ratifying an air agreement is SUCH important news

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:38

      Well we know what the headline will be tomorrow morning then, unless JU make yet another fleet renewal annoucement!

      Delete
  18. Anonymous15:24

    Adria's livery is actually pretty good.!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous15:56

    Whether the planes are safe to fly???? Lolololol another industry genius thank fuk u don't have a blog

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous17:53

    The old Yugoslavian "Egg"livery of Jat and the colors of Palair.
    That were the best ever,although i wouldnt call the current ones bad.
    Really bad=new AA livery and Germanwings,

    ReplyDelete
  21. JU520 BEGLAX17:59

    offtopic: Klagenfurt KLU has lost 25.7% of it s passengers 2012:2011. They stand now at 279'000 annual passengers. in 2005 best year of KLU they had over 500'000 pax....

    Slovenia had a plus in foreign tourist overnight stays in 2012... so Slovenia and the region in general looses passengers to other airports

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:00

      Ljuljana is visited mostly by tourists from neighboring countries. Germany, Austria, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, some French, Swiss and Benelux visitors. Brits, Scandinavians and Benelux visitors are only who arrive by air, rest come by car or train, so Ljubljana numbers might go up, but airport numbers might stagnate, Ljubljana should do promo campaign in Benelux, Scandinavia and the UK.

      In 2012 Ljubljana has 550 000 foreign visitors up on 2010 statistics when city had 450 000 visitors and 740 000 overnights, Ljubljana should be aiming for 3 times that figure imho.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:01

      Ljubljana visitor numbers, page 15 and 16 of the slide. http://www.slideshare.net/visitljubljana/ztl-10-let-grafi-ang

      Delete
    3. Anonymous21:17

      klagenfurt is 1 airport too many:
      graz and ljubljana r approx.100 km away from klagenfurt each - and with much better connections than klagenfurt itself

      Delete
    4. Anonymous00:22

      If thay have 279.000 pax it is not "one too many". With this number airport should be profitable.

      Delete

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