Brand Extension
Air India
Following its acquisition by the Tata Group, Air India unveiled a new global brand identity to mark its transformation into a premium private airline.
My role focused on scaling the identity into a global design system, redefining the passenger experience and brand visibility across 83+ airports. The primary challenge lay in implementing this vision across a diverse physical infrastructure under a stringent 4 month timeline.
Skills
- Systems thinking
- Brand translation across print and digital medium
Tools
Research & Discovery
Mapped the end-to-end passenger journey through airport recce,
stakeholder interviews, competitor benchmarking, and touchpoint
analysis to identify experience gaps and opportunities.
Challenges
- Significant variation in airport layouts, infrastructure and
constraints (domestic & international) - Limited flexibility due to rules governed by the airport authority
- Creating design guidelines for omni-channel touchpoints
- Coordinating across teams, vendors, and locations (remote and
on-ground)
Opportunity Mapping
Each touchpoint was evaluated across 3 strategic objectives:
- strengthening the brand
- improving passenger experience
- supporting operational efficiency
This framework helped prioritize where design could create the greatest impact.
Reimagining
the Boarding Pass
Airline Pain Points
Low visibility forces staff to manually highlight details for passengers, while branding limitations and cluttered information that hinder often operational efficiency.
Passenger Pain Points
A cluttered design with small fonts often buries critical flight info, leading to an unclear boarding process and frequent passenger confusion.
Technical Constraints
Legacy thermal printing enforced strict color and font limitations, requiring a rigid architecture to manage 43 unique variables within fixed character limits.
Designing with Purpose
Close collaboration with airline staff and user testing provided
valuable insights into their specific needs and priorities to
determine the information priority mapping.
Design shortlisted for
Manual Check-in Counters
Pre-printed cardstock to provide a tangible and branded passenger experience, from the beginning of the journey and beyond.
Features
Centralized Brand Integration
Successfully integrated the "Vista" window frame as a core structural element, ensuring a cohesive connection to the new global identity.
Colour Coding for classes
Implemented a distinct color-coding system to facilitate seamless cabin class differentiation.
Operational Balance
Refined the information architecture to create an intuitive interface that reduces friction at high-traffic security and boarding checkpoints.
Strategic Information Hierarchy
Prioritizes gate, seat, and flight details within the "Vista" frame for instant, high-visibility recognition.
Campbell Wilson
CEO, MD of Air India
The boarding pass design was a key highlight of the brand extension. It sets a solid standard for clarity and brand alignment in our passenger experience.
Designed all touchpoints
for 83+ airports
To ensure a seamless brand experience, the new visual
identity was mapped across all passenger touchpoints.
Each touchpoint posed unique challenges, requiring
focused attention and tailored solutions.
~72,000 passengers
interact with these touchpoints everyday
reiterating the new identity and improving
their journey, since January 2024.
