South African Airways
Utilizing the growing stopover trend, this project aims to rebrand, reimagine, and redesign South African Airways’ website.
Why South African Airways?
In 2019 South African Airways was placed in bankruptcy protection, and ceased all domestic and international operations. With the help of private investors, serious restructuring, and the South African government, South African Airways took flight once more in 2021. Although the airline has come a long way, there is still room for improvement. The website of South African Airways has remained the same for over a decade, and cannot compete with the quality and convenience of other modern airlines. With all of this promise over the horizon, South African Airways is the perfect company to look at for a website redesign.
Logo History
South African Airlines previously used the springbok as their logo. This symbol is linked to a troubling part of South Africa’s history. In the 1990s, South African Airways rebranded, utilizing the new South African flag as inspiration. Many other organizations that moved away from the springbok were drawn to another national symbol, the king protea flower. I explored a rebrand of South African Airways utilizing a king protea logo.
Logo Inspiration
The king protea is the national flower of South Africa which represents strength, courage and resilience. After apartheid ended, many organizations began using the king protea as their logo, which also became a symbol of post-apartheid South Africa. For a rebrand I will be referencing the elegant king protea flower for South African Airways.
Logo Redesign
Using post-it notes and a ball point pen, I went to work on rapid iteration on a potential logo redesign. After several goes at it, I was ready to enter Figma to illustrate a logo. The logo on the right is the final redesign. The logo features a King Protea flower beginning to bloom. This symbolizes how South African Airways is ready to grow again, and earn its place as an elegant, world-class airline.
Font & Palette
Noto Sans Bengali was chosen for this project. The color palette contains 5 colors. The light pink symbolizes the king protea flower. The second accent color is based on another national symbol, the lion.
Initial Wireframing
Final Design
Home Page
When updating the home page of South African Airways, my goal was to instill trust, confidence, and excitement. For this reason, the user is first greeted by a menu utilizing stunning visuals, while informing them of new routes and offers. Below, is a section that allows the user to easily book flights, check-in or manage their flights, view the status of their flights, and quickly view any additional services they have purchased, or would like to purchase, for their vacation.
Enhance Experience and Deals
The next section of the website presents the user with options to enhance their trip. This was done as a way to increase revenue, South African tourism, and ease of use. After that, the user is presented with popular offers and deals for current South African Airways flight routes.
Planning Your Journey
This section is designed to provide important information for the user to consider when planning their trip. This section displays vacation packages, current South African Airways flight routes, and things to do in South Africa. It also features a travel information section, meant to aide users on what documents, vaccines, and visas they need to effortlessly travel.
Member Rewards
This section is meant to introduce the user to some of the rewards and benefits offered by South African Airways. These offerings include tabs for a mobile app, a credit card, and other member rewards. There is also a tab that allows the user to learn more about a South Africa stopover.
About the Company
The “About Us” section is meant to educate users on the core values of South African Airways. This would instill trust in users, and ensure that they could confidently trust South African Airways with their business.
Newsletter
This section allows the users to provide their email address and sign-up for the South African Airways newsletter. Also below are icons that link users to the social media of South African Airways, so users can always stay connected.
