Style restyled for Alitalia rebrand
In 1967, the then-brand new Alitalia required the application of Landor’s brand across its fleet of 747s, DC-10s and others. The versatile, yet relatively small company was complemented by a simple black-lined wordmark and the now-iconic tricolor A tailfin logo.
“Alitalia has a special place in the heart of Landor,” global creative officer at Landor Peter Knapp says. “Our founder Walter Landor worked on it personally 45 years ago, so we felt a massive obligation to keep the brilliance of the original thinking alive and well.” But the change was inevitable as a corporate shift in 2005 and a difficult economic landscape caused the airliner to reexamine its brand.
Taking cues from Italy’s classical style and from the ethos of Formula 1 race car design, Landor reimagined the heritage brand for the modern age. Knapp says, “Alitalia is an iconic Italian brand and it would have been foolish to throw away its legendary status in the airline world. It has had its problems recently, but it is highly recognised and loved by many. We needed to keep the positive associations, but show that it was evolving and moving into a new positive.”
Flying to over 100 destinations and carrying over 20m passengers per year, Alitalia’s fleet of 120 Boeing, Airbus and Embraer aircraft is a hardworking one. It has also expanded from being a primarily domestic service back in 1967 to flying worldwide today. That meant a large-scale implementation project for the constantly-moving fleet, and Alitalia’s crew uniforms, ground signage and wayfinding, digital properties and ticketing systems and more.
“We had to consider both national and international perceptions of the brand and the country to ensure that we created an attractive and credible proposition. After which, having established the core brand strategy and design, we had to be confident it was economic and something that fitted the operating systems that we had in place,” Knapp says. Alitalia acts as a flagbearer for Italy around the world, says Alitalia, and its livery should reflect both its own history and style as well as Italy’s national brand.
