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Aviation Logo Design: Focus on Braniff
Braniff Airlines never really had a traditional logo design other than the letters "BI" for Braniff International located on the tale of their airplane. In Braniff's case it was more about the color of the plane + the logo on the plane that completed the overall corporate identity concept for the airline. Braniff was famous and unique for being the only airlines that did not have a standardize color scheme for its fleet livery. Rather, the airline painted its jets one of a multitude of colors. One Boeing 727 might be blue while another might be green or orange. They all shared the same "BI" on the tail regardless of what color the rest of the plane was. Braniff had a few 747s, in the earlier days which were used exclusively used on the airline's DFW-Honolulu run. The campaign ran as "747 Braniff Place." The aircraft was orange and was called "The Big Orange."
Towards the end of Braniff's existence the "BI" was deleted and no
explicit logo design was located on the tail of the aircraft...rathter, the
paint scheme of the aircraft again became the main focus of the corporate
identity of Braniff. They also used deeper/darker colors towards the end, such
as dark navy blue or dark green.
Braniff was truly a unique airline that made design an important element...probably more so than any other US carrier that has ever existed. Braniff went out of business in 82 and came back as a smaller discount carrier in the late eighties, but that fell through too.
In summary, Braniff never had a traditional logo design like that of Delta, TWA, United or the other main carriers. Rather, the "BI" + whatever color the plane was constituted the corporate identity scheme for the airline. The airline will is sorely. Next week we will focus on the the logo designs of Delta and Eastern Airlines.