Defining and evolving Pionair’s corporate identity. Pionair was one part private air charter firm, owning aircraft, employing pilots and aircrew, the other part an affluent travel firm, inbound travel wholesaler and tourism operator, my job of in-house designer, art director and founder of Pionair’s in-house “Propellor Studio” was the best of design jobs.
The initiation of the design process for client departments within the firm;
- air charter,
- escorted group travel,
- free inboard travel,
was based on a collaborative designer-client relationship. Not being from an aviation, air charter or travel background diligent research through my own learning programmes relating to each new project I was designing or writing was key to composing compelling communications. Understanding the travel industry background and customer drivers was essential. This research was backed by print cost estimation, and formal presentations. The printed campaign components were sometimes colour digitally printed and bound in-house. If not I took responsibility for the design and print production, out-sourcing of offset litho printing, signage, or web design.
Get involved, ask the right questions, work collaboratively
The design development phase with in-house clients was collegial, design strategies were expertly discussed and explored, draft design solutions were evaluated by the presentation of preliminary design visuals or comps. By a process of client designer consensus building we developed the rationale for the final selection. Once the rationale was settled for projects I was able to implement the design, artwork and copywriting (as required) with single-minded creative direction. The application and implementation of the identity system was planned and followed coherent guidelines. Custom Word document templates were developed, the house set of typefaces installed on colleague’s computers, a library of digital assets was developed and curated containing images, maps and infographics.
The five years of being in-house creative designer for Pionair was preceded by two years of their brand management; design, art direction, artwork and print production of their marketing collateral in an independent creative studio. Out of this evolved considerable knowledge and experience and as this “Hidden Gems” exposition demonstrates, a Corporate I.D. System of clarity and conciseness that yielded measurable sales and marketing results.
If you think a well planned corporate identity system design with well developed manuals and guidelines might be a good strategy for your firm contact me here.
The Hidden Gems set of 3 escorted tour direct mail brochures. The brochures formed a 2009 direct mail campaign to Pionair’s past traveller database and affluent travel agents in the U.S. and the rest of the world. This set of brochures comprising Hidden Gems of New Zealand, Secrets of Southern Australia and Spirit of Papua New Guinea was a component of the kit of promotional material supplied to Pionair’s leading agents in the U.S.. The agents’ kit also included the “Unparalleled Journeys” affluent travel booklet.
Credits
Printer: Croft Print Limited
Design firm: Pionair Propellor Studio (in-house)
Copywriter: Rae Wakefield Jones / Tim Scott
Art director / designer / print production: Shaun Waugh
Photographers: Pionair travelers, Papua New Guinea Tourism, Christopher Michael
Client: Pionair Group Travel / Escorted Tours business group (Tim Scott)
Type Credit: Avant Garde, Avant Garde Condensed
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