Moving Brands partnered with the private jet company Greenjets to create a brand identity for a radically new service poised to forever change long-entrenched perceptions of private jet travel. Co-founded by Uber founder Garrett Camp and powered by a Moving Brands-designed app, BlackJet allows a wider market of luxury travellers to book individual seats on private planes instantly, at the touch of an iPhone. The disruptive new brand presents unprecedented competition to commercial airlines by offering all of the luxury and convenience of private jet travel at a price point comparable to their first and business classes (and with the invaluable added benefit of avoiding all of the traditional hassles of the airport).
Story
“BlackJet is all about building an aspirational brand. Moving Brands got that immediately and delivered pitch perfect strategy for building Blackjet into a global brand. This is why Moving Brands has been a perfect partner.”
— Shervin Pishevar, Menlo Ventures
The narrative we created for the new BlackJet brand is the story of the new private jet flyer. The best commercial airlines in the world can offer any number of amenities to first class passengers once they are on board, but they have no control over the experience of getting to the gate. Passengers who spend thousands of dollars for extra legroom and complimentary champagne have become increasingly frustrated with still having to deal with parking, shuttles, fees for checked bags and long lines at security.
As a result, flying private has evolved to be less about status, exclusivity and image and more about avoiding the time-consuming inconveniences and indignities of the airport experience that all commercial travellers (including those in first class) have to endure. It’s less about excessive luxury, more about living with intention; less about living the good life at any cost, more about living the good life well; less about exclusivity, more about syncing travel with the momentum of life.
BlackJet created a brilliant and affordable private jet service that doesn’t cannibalize Greenjets’ existing charter market by selling individual seats on the bevy of empty jets returning from one-way flights. Moving Brands identified a growing market of stylish, busy and tech-savvy first and business-class travellers. We developed a UX that contradicts everything you expect from the frustrating, time-consuming chaos of commercial travel — a frictionless, ultra simple UI that enables secure high value transactions on a mobile device. Our strategy of simplicity-as-luxury informed a short form brand narrative that speaks directly to the core benefits of flying private: BlackJet — for a colorful life.
System
The visual identity Moving Brands developed for BlackJet is bold, confident and elegant. The “B” is abstracted, drawing directly from the design direction’s concept of the fast, frictionless journey. It takes the subtle shape of wings, both in the positive space created by the curves of the “B” and the negative space, which reveals the sleek nose and wings of a jet. A moody, sexy, monochromatic color palette and contrasting, geometric font further advance the personality of the brand and differentiate its identity from its competitors.
The user interface was designed after extensive research into trends and methodologies in communicating luxury on digital platforms and executing high-value mobile money payments. Our findings revealed that what high-value consumers truly want is hurdle-free instant gratification. Simply put: they want what they want when they want it. Through seamless design and a pared-down, no-frills interface, simplicity is luxury.
The resulting UI ensures reliability and purchasing safety while maintaining the elegant simplicity of iPhone functionality.
Experience
Moving Brands developed the visual identity system, UI and guidance needed to create a website and app for BlackJet that feels intuitive in its navigation, comfortable in its use and inherently sleek and luxurious. The service launched in October 2012 to an invite-only crowd of initial fliers and has garnered positive press for both its innovative offering and A-list roster of Silicon Valley and Hollywood VCs.
Moving Brands elsewhere on Identity Designed: Arcadia, Watermark, CX.
More from Moving Brands.
Comments
Loving this, absolutely oozes class and sexiness.
I love the abstract “B”. sleek, modern… well done!
Black is outstanding with this product. The right choice.
The vertical jet has strange phallic and sexual characteristics. Looks like doggy style.
Beautiful execution of a simple and elegant visual style. The “B” mark is a great example of simple and effective use of negative space. Would love to be able to see more of the process in coming up with it, perhaps some unused concepts as well.
Great use of negative space on the brand mark. Overall outstanding piece of brand identity.
Loved it.
You can’t beat a clever bit of negative space in logo design. As well as the mark really liking the whole identity on show here.
Brilliant work.
As usual, a fantastic explanation from MB in their thought process and I don’t think anyone can deny that it is a beautiful mark. My only thoughts are that I’m not sure it’s focused enough in terms of what it is communicating particularly the tagline “For a colourful life” which seems rather gratuitory and without purpose – I’m not really sure that communicates the core benefits of the product.
I believe that everything is simply elegant. Reading the process that they took with this branding and creation of the app was inspiring to say the least. I ultimately though am not 100% sold on the symbol itself. When you look at the mark when the symbol is above the logotype, it seems too heavy compared to the thin type. But when you look at it and the symbol is to the side (like on the business card) it looks perfect.
I also agree with Ash on the tagline “For a colourful life”… I believe its too much. I understand the play here but I feel the tagline doesn’t quite fit at all.
Beautifully executed mark and conceptually self-explanatory. I just find it ironic how the very last application’s headline says “For a Colourful Life”, when the entire advertisement is monotone. That’s odd…or maybe I’m missing something?
I agree Graeme, its almost like Skittles saying “Taste the rainbow” and all their candy pieces are white and black.
^it’s not just the obtuse nature of putting that with all monotone visuals it’s also the fact it just comes across as fluff without any focused messaging. The first thing we are here to do as as designers is to communicate and I think that fails a little in its messaging.
“The first thing we are here to do as as designers is to communicate and I think that fails a little in its messaging.”
I agree
I totally agree with Graeme and Ash. The ‘colourful life’ thing adds nothing.
The logo is nice enough and the font’s fine, but nothing really grabs me. Perhaps it’s the copy that accompanies it, which I can’t help but find a little pompous. As somebody pointed out in another thread, though, I suppose I’m not the target audience.
Once again, it’s difficult to judge the whole brand as parts of it are out of reach, like the website (my invitation to join must have got lost in the post). I don’t really get a feel for the brand by seeing post-it notes on a board or mock-ups.
Given that the target audience for this brand are jetsetters (the majority being male I assume) who could afford first and business class seats, the irony in ‘colorful life’ hits the mark quite well. A little pompous, yes, but its the type of cleverness that resonates with these people.
The logo is nice. The color palette is a bit overused, but it works.
Love it – elegant, simple, spacious and uncluttered.
Don’t mind the ‘For a Colourful Life’ tag – it makes me want to read the blurb underneath to find out what it is – that’s a success to my mind.
This is a slick identity. But does it advertise the freedom and luxury that comes with flying private jets or wouldn’t it work as well for General Electric or Rolls Royce advertising jet engine technology? I think the inherent coolness in black and high-polished surfaces can work against it without some human touch or purpose. Used in context, this might not be an issue, though.
Gloss, chrome, shared angles, contrasting mark and type weights, these all make up a solid but restrained identity. Perhaps not luxury – I suspect that largely comes with the experience of travelling (and rightly so) – but it is certainly high quality, well considered and coherent across each piece of communication.
Very good work, but I found myself mistaking the “B” icon for a “3” to begin with.
Very nice, slick work, as you would hope for a modern luxury brand. The logo does look like a bum though, which if this is about getting bums on seats, is entirely appropriate.