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.On Thursday, February 8 at Frankfurt airport, Germany and Europe’s largest airline company (in terms of passengers), will send its updated company crane symbol into the skies, where it has already been flying for 100 years.
“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.
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.
bb/nf/cmb (dpa, lufthansagroup.com)