The blue crane in a yellow circle is one of the best-known logos in the world. But after 100 years, Lufthansa's logo is getting a face-lift.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Lufthansa
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Airline logos: Colorful, stark and striking
The large, often stylized logos on airplane tails allow you to immediately recognize the airline when you spot a plane. Many use birds in their designs, but all companies want to let you know where they are based.
Image: S. Barbour/Getty Images
Qantas
The plane tails of Australia's national airline Qantas are embellished with a stylized kangaroo, hence the nickname "the Flying Kangaroo!" Even from a far distance, it's easy to tell which continent the plane comes from. After all, kangaroos only exist in Australia. This animal has become a sort of national logo, appearing not only on planes but also on Australia's coat of arms and currency.
Image: S. Barbour/Getty Images
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
In contrast to its Australian counterpart, the logo of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is more factual. The abstract symbol of a crown in combination with the three letters KLM leaves no doubt as to which country this plane comes from. And that's what logos are all about.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/R. de Waal
Gambia Bird
The tiny West African state is a paradise for birds and their friends. More than 500 different kinds of birds live in the Gambia. Tourists don't even need to take birdwatching trips because many birds can be spotted in hotel gardens — they're just everywhere! Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Gambian national airline went for a bird as its logo when it was founded in 2012. Service ceased in 2014.
Image: flickr/Transport Pixels
Alaska Airlines
The Seattle-based airline has proved its creativity on several occasions during its 90-year-long history. The company was among the first airlines to sell tickets online and to offer online and automatic check-ins. Like its name, the logo of the airline refers to Alaska and its indigenous inhabitants, the Inuit.
Image: Reuters
Iran Air
A trade embargo and political tensions between 1980 and 2016 made it hard for Iran's state airline with headquarters at Tehran's Mehrabad airport to modernize its planes. But maybe the "homa," the mythological bird used in the logo, came to the rescue of the airline. According to Persian mythology, "homa" is believed to bring luck and joy while living its life entirely in the sky.
Image: Konstantin von Wedelstaedt
Air Tanzania
Over the years Tanzania's national airline has also had to face numerous challenges. Sometimes its fleet was in the air, sometimes not, and the airline's owners also frequently changed. It's certainly not the fault of the giraffe logo. The world's tallest animal looks so friendly and inviting on the plane;what passenger could say no to stepping onboard for a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro?
Image: flickr/stevesaviation
Takeoff into the future
A crane has served as the logo of Germany's largest airline since 1918. Some types of cranes cover enormous distances when they migrate, but others are considered pests due to their enormous appetites. Lufhansa is now flying into the future with a new logo design. The symbol will be the same, but the colors will change. Goodbye yellow and gray, hello simple white and blue!
"You can tell that the design was drawn by hand and not created on a computer," said Ronald Wild, the designer behind the new look of Lufthansa's logo.
The new design was revealed one week ago in the latest edition of Lufthansa's inflight magazine. It is primarily a color change: the gray that was previously visible on the underside of the airplane and the engine, as well as the yellow circle around the crane, will be dropped. Instead, passengers will be greeted by a dark blue and bright white when they walk out onto the tarmac. The makeover is simple, fresh and modern — in keeping with the airline's push for modernization.
Lufthansa is removing yellow from their logo's color palette and will stick to blue and whiteImage: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Gebert
In flight for 100 years
The crane will continue to be the company's logo, which many Lufthansa fans will warmly welcome since the bird has been the company logo since 1918. That's the year that graphic designer and architect Otto Firle designed the original crane logo for the first German airline that would eventually become Lufthansa. The logo has been adapted three times since its creation.
Updating a logo can be no small task since the images serve as visual identity cards for a brand's business, location and even values. In a press release from February 5, Lufthansa said its stylized crane "is an unmistakable symbol for expertise, open-mindedness and quality."
To see the logos used by other airliners and what they represent, check out the above picture gallery.
