Arkia (Arkia Israeli Airlines) is Israel’s second-largest airline, headquartered in Tel Aviv and founded in 1949 as Israel Inland Airlines. The airline’s visual identity has undergone two major phases: a long-standing mark used from the 1970s until 2017, and a colorful refresh introduced in May 2017.
Design and History
The long-running Arkia logo, used from the 1970s until 2017, is credited to Israeli graphic designer Dan Reisinger. Reisinger’s official portfolio lists Arkia Airlines among his corporate identity work, alongside El Al Israel Airlines, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and the Habima National Theater [1]. His archive, donated to the National Library of Israel, includes designs for El Al, Arkia, Teva, Delek, Electra, Tambour, and dozens of other marks that survived the test of time [2]. Reisinger, who won the Israel Prize in 1998, also designed a new logo for El Al in 1972 [3].
In May 2017, Arkia introduced a new logo and livery, marking the first rebrand in 17 years [4]. The rebrand coincided with the airline becoming the worldwide launch customer of the Airbus A321LR [5]. The new identity was designed by Baruch Naeh & Partners, with Baruch Naeh responsible for the design and Limor Erlichman for the branding strategy [6]. The agency describes the mission as transforming a local, generic airline into a colorful and joyful vacation brand, with the creative idea “We color your freedom” [7].
Meaning and Symbolism
The 2017 logo features the word “arkia” in Latin letters, with the first letter “a” enlarged and painted in multicolored stripes with white lines, while the remaining letters are blue. Below the large Latin-letter wordmark, the Hebrew name “ארקיע” appears in smaller blue letters [6]. The multicolored letter was intended to visually present diverse tourism options in different flavors, which is also why each aircraft in the fleet received a different color scheme [6]. The rebrand was accompanied by the slogan “Arkia – From A to Fun” [4].
Typography and Design
The 2017 identity developed a visual language based on cheerful, dynamic, and ever-changing colors, expanding into a system of colorful squares, pictograms, and icons inspired by the digital world [7]. The aircraft design became an integral part of the brand language, with the agency working alongside Airbus engineers in Toulouse, France, to apply the new branding to Arkia’s fleet [7].
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