Convair aircraft safety on board card

: Pionair aviation | Rebrand

The Convair CV580 Cabin Safety Instructions Card instructs passengers aboard the aircraft about the aircraft’s specific procedures for dealing with various emergency conditions that may arise during the flight. The variability in the cabin fit-outs between Pionair’s four passenger Convairs meant Pionair’s safety-on-board card’s infographics were individually tailored to each aircraft.

This card was located in the seat back in front of the passenger. The first iteration of safety cards I produced for the Convair were A4 portrait format. However this format proved unsatisfactory in use—a tight fit in the seat pocket that often jammed and therefore quickly delaminated and became shabby, resulting in an unsatisfactory and short service life.

Rollover fold 6-page format

The rollover fold 6-page format was the innovation developed in 2007 to;

increase the durability of the cards
adhere to the requirement for increased quantity and detail required in the cards‘ infographics after New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority aligned its standards with the Australian Authority (CASA) in May 2006.
The card was designed and printed digitally in-house then finished in a heavy-duty laminate capsule.

Human figure infographics drawn from life

The Convair safety cards contents are entirely graphic representations which makes them accessible to those speaking another language than the flight attendants. The contents use a blend of clear, descriptive infographics, set in the aircraft and a set of simple, Convair specific, generic pictograms.

Every second counts during an emergency, so I staged photographing colleagues on board the Convair as reference, then drew large, clear infographics. This representational format results in infographics easily understood by passengers.

The inspiration for the perforated metal pattern used as a background came from observing of the CV580 cockpit. Constructed in 1958, perforated metal is used liberally on the flight deck as a weight saving measure. Observation also led to the re-creation of the original engraved Convair eagle brand for use in the custom CV580 safety cards and promotional merchandise.

Designed and printed in-house

The demand for short-run colour printing within Pionar increased rapidly between 2004–6, so from then I managed the digital printing and finishing of documents in-house.

Pionair Aviation

Pionair in both New Zealand and Australia was simultaneously an airline that specialised in private air charter and air cargo and a ‘best in class’ tour operator.

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Credits

Design studio: Pionair Propellor in-house studio
Printer: Pionair Propellor
Print finishing: Croft Printing
Font credits: Univers, Sloop script