BRANIFF STYLE

If cabin decor connoisseurs were asked to select the most dramatic and inspiring of all the schemes ever flown by commercial airlines, the name Braniff would almost certainly appear somewhere near the top of the popularity-poll results.

Why were the Braniff cabin programmes so exceptional? Who shaped the philosophy? And who handled the product developments during the glory days of the airline?

The story began in 1965 when Harding Lawrence (formerly the Executive Vice President of Continental Airlines, which was then based in Los Angeles, California) moved to Dallas, Texas, to run Braniff. For his new advertising programme he needed something unique that would produce an immediate impact nationwide because the airline had big plans to rapidly expand its fleet and network.

COLOUR VISION

The assignment was given to Mary Wells, who worked at Jack Tinker & Partners, the Madison Avenue advertising agency that had handled the ‘Golden Jet’ campaign at Continental.

Mary Wells had already played a significant role in a number of marketing campaigns for such major clients as Alka-Seltzer, General Mills, Polaroid and Volkswagen: she was credited with introducing strikingly original 1960s-style sizzle and bounce to their creative advertising programmes. For the fledgling Braniff she decided to develop an entirely new corporate identity programme based on ‘wow-type’ colour schemes. As she explains in her autobiography, A Big Life (in Advertising)**, the ideas had come to her while waiting at an airport check-in gate:

‘Airlines had developed out of the military and modern marketing hadn’t discovered them yet. Planes were metallic or white with a stripe painted down the middle to make them look as if they could get up and fly. The terminals were greige. They had off-white walls, cheap stone or linoleum floors, grey metal benches, there were tacky signs stuck onto walls any place at all ... Stewardesses, as they were called, were dressed to look like nurses or pilots who could fly the planes in case the real pilot had a heart attack. There were no interesting ideas, no place for your eyes to rest, nothing smart anywhere.

‘And there was no color. This was the sixties, mind you, when color was a hot marketing tool. I started talking about color to Jack and everybody at Tinker and then to Harding when he would call. He liked thinking about color; he reminded me that Braniff would be flying to places associated with brilliant color, Mexico and South America.

‘I saw the opportunity in color ... I saw Braniff in a wash of beautiful color.’

To launch the new marketing programme, ‘The End of the Plain Plane’, Mary Wells asked Emilio Pucci, the famous Italian couturier, to develop a glamorous uniform for the Braniff ‘hostesses’. In dazzling lollipop shades of lime, pink, turquoise and plum, the interchangeable ‘Air Strip’ wardrobe included: reversible coats, space-bubble helmets, Trevira dresses and mini-skirts with matching tops, nylon culottes and leggings in vivid patterns, pyjama trousers, hot pants, two-tone patent shoes, Courreges-style boots, and even luggage, leotards and lingerie.

To review every aspect of the Braniff passenger experience, Mary Wells employed Alexander Girard, an architect and graphic designer who had achieved great success with his decor schemes at the fashionable New York restaurant La Fonda del Sol (The Sunshine Inn). Inspired by his experiences in locations such as New Mexico and Central and South America, Alexander Girard had developed colour-montage installations and assemblies featuring exotic ethnic artifacts in brilliant colours. The ideas relating to these distinctive displays were incorporated into the strategic planning for the new identity programmes at Braniff.

Braniff Boeing B707

A sense of spaciousness is created by having small overhead cabin-baggage storage bins and brilliantly lit, wide-angled ceiling panels.

Alexander Girard went on to design more than 17,000(!) visually related items, ranging from sugar packets and ashtrays to layouts for the entire Braniff fleet. For the aircraft exteriors he devised a range of paint schemes in brilliant solid colours from which seven were selected for implementation. There was also a lavender scheme combined with black and white that had to be discontinued because it was regarded as bad luck in Mexico and South America — key revenue routes for the airline.

Alexander Girard had worked as Textile Director at the Herman Miller Company and, using their fabrics, he devised three schemes for Braniff aircraft interiors, encompassing a wild array of eye-splitting colours: solids, stripes, and checkerboards. No fewer than 56(!) different fabrics were installed in the aircraft cabins, to the delight of passengers and the press, but to the despair of engineering and maintenance staff, who could not possibly stock all the spare parts in each colour combination at every down-line station on the Braniff route network. And who cannot imagine the associated dollar costs.

He also designed the iconic ‘Braniff Dove Logo’, which was used in conjunction with the BI (Braniff International) primary logo and placed on everything from cocktail napkins to ticket office signs and hostess wings.

To while away the time spent on flights, in conjunction with Atari, Braniff pioneered the introduction of video games on board the aircraft — a forerunner of the IFE systems we take for granted these days.

A convocation of international chefs was created to review the Braniff food-and-beverage service and then outdo all the other airlines. For short flights and snacks, they developed the ‘Branwich’, a scrumptious combination of goodies stuffed into a plump wraparound bread-type covering.

The iconic ‘Braniff Dove Logo’, designed by Alexander Girard

Braniff Boeing B747 Upper Deck Lounge

Braniff Boeing B747s

RAINBOW COLOURS RULE

In 1967, as reported at length by gossip columnists worldwide, Mary Wells married Harding Lawrence, after setting up her own advertising company, Wells Rich Greene, in 1966, with Braniff as her first major account. However, in 1968, there was a parting of the ways when Braniff declared a conflict of interest (TWA had become a client of the advertising agency). And the outcome? Well, Wells or no Wells, the rainbow colours just kept on flying!

Other experts came to work at Braniff, including the Chicago-based Clinton E. Frank agency and renowned couturier Halston, who designed a new uniform in brown for the ‘Ultra Look’ programme. ‘The flight attendants looked fabulous. They loved the Ultrasuede fabric so much they used to wear the outfits when they went out to dinner parties!’ said Russ Thayer, who was the President of Braniff at the time. During the 1970s, there was a stream of exciting advertising and product-design programmes, for example, ‘747 Braniff Place: The Most Exclusive Address in the Sky’; ‘Personally, you’ll like flying Braniff Style’; ‘The Customer is Number 1’; ‘It’s Better on Braniff’; ‘The Big Orange’; and ‘When You Got It – Flaunt It’.

To re-spark the brand image and generate an extra blaze of publicity, the legendary American artist Alexander Calder was commissioned to re-paint some of the ‘airmobile’ aircraft exteriors for the ‘Flying Colors’ campaign.

To handle the rapidly expanding number of premises and ground facilities in the Americas, Asia and Europe, Braniff employed New York–based design firm Harper & George.

Irving Harper, in an interview for this Case Study, described his work at Dallas Love Field, Texas:

‘The Terminal of the Future at Love Field was Braniff’s most important location because it was the home base of the airline. In the VIP Lounge, we used vivid colour-splash fabrics from Jack Lenor Larsen and exotic works of art from Mexico and South America. We carried this design approach across to airport check-in and boarding-gate areas, city ticket offices, training centres and ground-service vehicles. Braniff’s prime aim was to gain visibility, and management was extremely receptive to original ideas. This was very different from the corporate mode typical of the bigger airlines of the day, such as Pan American.

‘When we became responsible for the aircraft interiors, we reduced the earlier multi-fabric specification to just one fabric, and in 1977, we installed all-leather seat covers in both First and Economy Class cabins, on both narrow- and wide-body aircraft — a Braniff “first” in the industry.’

The designer Philip George, in his Comments at the end of Chapter 4/Aero Identity, and as outlined in Chapter 14/Flying Colours, explains in detail how Braniff handled the exciting process of ‘inventing’ its unique brand identity and how the process eventually permeated all aspects of the Braniff passenger experience — programmes that were later emulated by competitor airlines worldwide.

Braniff Boeing B747

Above: Leather seat covers in Coach (Economy) Class. In 1977/78, Braniff launched an all-leather aircraft interior scheme. The slogan 'Fly in Leather' was presented as 'en cuero' for the Hispanic market, that is, 'naked' or 'in the nude.' Was this just a translation muddle or clever marketing? (A great range of leather seat cover treatments are shown in the Leather-Look Picture Gallery attached to Chapter 12/The Leather Forecast.)

Above and Below: Vibrant colour schemes in the Braniff VIP Lounge at Dallas Love Field, Texas

FLASHBACK

For further information, Readers are recommended to consult www.braniffinternational.com. This evocative website provides comprehensive coverage of the history and achievements of the airline and includes a dazzling collection of vintage images.

THE LEGACY

As a result of too-rapid expansion, rising fuel costs, and problems associated with the newly deregulated environment, Braniff was forced to shut down in May 1982 (just a few months after the sad demise of the British low-fare operator Laker Airways).

While no-one seems to remember the dozens of other airlines that went into bankruptcy during the 1980s, almost everyone who works in aviation has some knowledge of the shooting-star trajectory of this Texas-based carrier: the name Braniff lives on as an exemplar of how to design and develop a unique airline product.

Can anyone predict how many airlines operating today will turn out to be as memorable as Braniff? ( Readers will find some colourful contenders in the Cabin Colours Picture Gallery attached to Chapter 14/Flying Colours.)

Pictures provided courtesy of Braniff/George Design Studio.

*Lawrence, Mary Wells (2003) A Big Life (in Advertising), New York: Simon & Schuster
www.simonandschuster.com

Braniff Boeing B727. Note how the seat-back panel of the centre seat could be brought down to serve as a cocktail table or work surface.