Irish rage is right, but for the wrong reason

The ridiculous cri de coeur by the Irish design industry that its traditional airline has had the temerity to seek a new visual identity from a foreign consultancy (and with a name like Luxon Carr), does have some precedent. It may wish to recall the cries of mayhem and murder which greeted Landor’s appointment for the British Airways identity.

I was asked at the time by Creative Review magazine to comment on this outrageous desertion of queen and country and I remember publishing a drawing of a 747 decorated with tudor beams as a facetious answer to what I then saw as a piece of sub-heraldry, misunderstood and misplaced by naive Americans who should not have been appointed in the first place.

I’ve grown up a bit since then, realising that the idea was not to sell BA to Brits but to everyone else, for whom the scheme was, in retrospect, entirely appropriate.

If it’s any consolation to the “depressed and betrayed” over in Dublin, the Aer Lingus solution about which they are so upset is in my view rather less effective than that which it replaces, and certainly does not have the panache created by the Americans for BA all those years ago.

Nick Jenkins

Jenkins Group

London SW 1