United and continental. Birth of a brand.

The lawyers and accountants have been working weeks on the presentation: the hubs and destinations, the common culture, the synergy, and why this isn’t a trust-buster merger. If this “flies” they know they’ll be the biggest airline on the planet.





Now alone in the new United Loop office space at 77 W. Wacker, United CEO Glenn Tilton, and Continental CEO Jeff Smisek maneuver to close the deal.

Tilton asks, “Scotch? If we’re going to do this the headquarters stays in Chicago. What do you want?”

“No problem with that. I’ll be the new CEO. I’m now wondering what we stick on the planes? What did it cost to paint your planes grey? BTW, I’ll admit I’m getting an adrenaline flow over this. ”

“Yeah, it may have been bad timing to start repainting the planes while we’re filing for bankruptcy I guess. The jury’s out on what our passengers think of the packaging. Probably don’t give a damn.”

“Ready for another? I went to the trouble to talk to our creatives. They said the marriage could be a complicated brand issue and said to stick with what we have.”

“Let’s keep the process simple. It’s the name and logo. You keep your name and we stick on our logo. They’ll be naysayers but it’s a no-brainer.”

“Come to my computer, I’m getting good at retouching my press head shots.”

Cut. Paste. Cut. Paste. “Wait. Need to type this.” Click. Click. Click. “Shit. Do you text message?” Click. Click. Click. Cut. Paste. “There, what do you think?”

“Very impressive. I’ll be sending you my head shots. I’m hungry as hell, let”s call the wives.”

above: saul bass – designer of united logo / brand identity


Resources:
fastcompany
reuters
chicago architecture