What do you think of South African Airways livery?Is it lively enough;does it capture our colorful lives and cultures and even histories.Apart from some daring designs by airlines such as Kulula or Mango Airlines,most African airline liveries are pretty bland to be honest.
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| Kyle Hwang |
Kyle Hwang is young and passionate aviation geek from Pretoria ,South Africa and a prolific designer too.His "favorite pastime is livery designing" and he has come up with some innovative and imaginative redesigns of airline liveries.One of his(and mine too) favorite albeit controversial "redesigns" is that of South African Airways.His inspiration is the Springbok(South Africa's National Animal) and a symbol of apartheid.
During apartheid,the Springbok was a powerful symbol of Afrikaner nationalism and the incoming ANC regime,determined to dismantle these vestiges and symbols of the past,took great care in rebranding the former "pariah airline' to conform to the post apartheid realities.So out went the blue Springbok and in came the
new livery based upon the new national flag, with a yellow ball (sun) placed in the red stripe |
| The blue flying Springbok:The South African Airways emblem prior to 1997 |
The Revenge of the Springbok?
Kyle disagrees;of the Springbok,he says "I do not think it is a reminder of Apartheid.The Flying Springbok logo was used even before apartheid was initiated."His redesign embraces the two South Africas;the old and the new.The "Rainbow nation" as conceived by Mandela must embrace every facet of its cultures and experiences,and that includes some symbols of the old Afrikaner dominated South Africa too.Kyle has also addressed the concerns for those who might accuse him of harboring a nostalgia for the old days:"My version of the livery also feature the three colours of the ANC quite predominantly too so you cannot blame me for political incorrectness."
Read Kyle Hwang's Blog Raydon Designer's Blog
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