Blog homeTwo new airline website launches this week have caught my attention. First we have FlyBmi (London Heathrow’s second largest airline). Secondly we have JetRepublic (who have just placed an order for 110 new Learjets…. blimey)
- http://www.jetrepublic.com/ - and launch report on the BBC website
- http://www.flybmi.com/ - and launch report on the Travolution website
What interests me about these sites is that both are mainly black.
Black is a colour that I really don’t think is appropriate for an airline website. Black is the colour that is closely associated with the emergency web pages that airlines have ready for serious air disasters. Indeed, when I first saw the new BMI homepage I thought they had lost one of their aircraft.
To quote BMI:
We also wanted to break away from traditional airline website design and re-create the feeling of flying on the website itself
Well the first feeling I got was of crashing or some other dreadful event. Not a good look.
New FlyBmi.com homepage
Jet Republic homepage
This reminds me of another visual design rule for airlines - never show a photo of an aircraft in a nose down position. That isn’t a good look either. Jet Republic get away with it on this shot (above) because the plane is coming directly towards the camera.
Anyway, either way, nice to be back writing about website openings rather than closings!
(Disclosure, I project managed the last major FlyBmi website redesign in 2004 on behalf of a London web design agency (not their existing agency))
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Hi Alex,
I heard about the Jet Republic launch on Radio 5 yesterday - good luck to them!
Anyway, agree black has negative connotations, particularly for an airline - it’s also associated with elegance and power, something I think ties in well with their target customer - those immune to the crunch and able to spend £4k an hour to fly! One other luxury site I can think of - http://www.amanresorts.com/ - but I don’t know any other airline sites.
Not sure about the choice for BMI - black background can reduce readability but I suppose they’d say that the main booking parts of the site are still blue on white.
For what it’s worth I went for black/dark grey background on countrybrands.org to help the strong logo colours stand out.
Cheers,
Dominic
Hi Dominic,
From what I read of the press release (BMI), I think this black look is what they are proposing for their entire site - not just the homepage.
I agree that black is associated with elegance and power. Aman resorts looks OK (except for the spam homepage they have below the fold)
http://www.airplanning.com/ - that is what a luxury jet company design could look like (with no black). Still looks fine.
You are all wrong: the future’s bright, the future’s purple.
@ Kevin
What, you mean Kiss Flights? That is more pink than purple (but it could be my monitors)
http://www.kissflights.com/
They also launched their new airline website this week…… but that wasn’t black - so didn’t fit into my story!
@ Kevin
Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, creativity, mystery, and magic.
@ Alex
Purple is a very rare color in nature; some people consider it to be artificial. You can use bright purple when promoting children’s products.
;-)
Any sneak previews of the new Travolution site Kevin?
Dominic:
here you go:
http://travolution.blogspot.com/2008/09/sneak-peak-new-travolution-site.html
It’s rather different from the old site… [thank goodness
]
Ah - that “different” word.
I spend most of my time (when working with client website relaunches) trying to ensure that someone defines what “better” is - otherwise you just end up with “different”.
Having said that, the site does look “better”
But news sites are not about how they look but about how they interact (and how they inform and permit conversation)….. so still holding back judgement until it is live!
Thanks Kevin, looking good, look forward to giving it a whirl.