Continental Airlines operated from 1934 until its 2012 merger with United Airlines, and its visual identity went through two major redesigns, each tied to a distinct era in the carrier’s history. The final and best-known mark, a stylized blue globe, was introduced in 1991 and later carried over to the merged United Airlines brand.
Design and History
Continental Airlines began as Varney Speed Lines in 1934 and was renamed Continental Airlines in 1937. In 1944, the carrier introduced a red, white, and blue eagle symbol with a block letter logotype. When Continental became an international carrier in 1968, it launched a new corporate identity created by Saul Bass & Associates. The design featured an oval defined in spreading jet contrails, known as the “jetstream” logo, which reflected Continental’s identity as an airline of the jet age. “Contrails Red” became the predominant color, while gold, orange, and black were retained as secondary colors. Bass’s logo remained in use until 1991.[1][2]
On February 12, 1991, Continental introduced a new blue, gold, and grey aircraft livery with a globe logo, replacing the gold and red livery with the jetstream logo designed by Saul Bass.[3] The globe mark was unveiled by New York design firm Lippincott (then Lippincott & Margulies) in 1991.[4][5] The new look was the result of 14 months of research and design by Lippincott & Margulies in New York.[6]
When United and Continental announced their merger in 2010, the combined airline’s new logo combined the global mark used by Continental since 1991 with the United name in capital letters. The merged carrier’s livery adopted Continental’s color and design, including its blue-gold-white globe image on the tail.[7] The decision to keep Continental’s globe and retire United’s Saul Bass-designed “tulip” logo drew protests from United loyalists, who launched “Save the Tulip” campaigns on Facebook and Twitter.[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The 1991 globe logo shows a section of a globe with highlighted longitudes and latitudes.[6] The livery was simple, white on top and gray on bottom separated by a gold cheatline, a holdover from its previous livery, with a blue tail showing a section of a gold globe, indicating the global reach of the airline.[8]
For many Continental customers, the globe mark became a reminder of the airline’s resurgence under former CEO Gordon Bethune, and branding expert Chuck Carlberg of Houston advertising agency Richards/Carlberg called it “one of the best marks if not the best mark in the industry,” noting that “it moves. Not too many logos do that.”[4]
Typography and Design
Continental’s official logo usage guidelines specified Pantone Matching System (PMS) 286 Blue as the corporate color for the logo. CMYK settings for print application were 100% C, 66% M, 0% Y, 2% K, and RGB settings for web application were R: 0, G: 51, B: 153.[9]
After the merger, the new United logo initially kept the word “United” in Continental’s old typeface, Perpetua Bold, before later changing the text to just “United” in a sans-serif font.[10]
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