Delta 1997 Concept Liveries Released

DeltaRules · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:14 pm

The Delta Flight Museum has recently made available an online catalog of their materials archive. There's lots of interesting stuff to be found there, but the most interesting by far are models depicting concept liveries to replace the 1960s-1997 "widget" scheme:

1) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4692882728
2) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 3545287561
3) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4711476021
4) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4112483852
5) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 5250706800
6) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 1917672340
7) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 9977305931
8) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 7236398920
9) http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 3065207928

Some of them feature "Express" titles on the right side, obviously meant as demonstrators for how the liveries might look on Delta Express planes. A couple of them also were placed on MD-88 and 727 models as well.

I'm a fan of 3, 5, and 8 personally, though the final scheme chosen contains elements of several of these and is still arguably better.

Noise · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:20 pm

Those liveries are so 90s...great find!

ro1960 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:25 pm

Thanks for sharing, great find ! I like the Express version. The rest is forgettable.

DL752 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:27 pm

Wow, that first one is great.
Reminds me of something you would find at the Disney Contemporary.

I like the blocks of color they were going for and can see the eventual Wavy Gravy livery in that eighth one.

DL752 :airplane:

RL757PVD · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:29 pm

Those are hideous... no wonder the "lipstick" one (as I refer to it) won out....

res77W · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:32 pm

This is really cool. I really like #4. I can see the thought path that eventually led to the '97 livery.

-Rowen

OA940 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:36 pm

The third one is the only good one, but it is better than what came out.

Sightseer · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:36 pm

Although the waves maybe should've extended farther forward, number 3 is probably my personal favorite, even over the one they ultimately chose.

jetlanta · Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:47 pm

I never cared much for the one they selected, until now. All of these are awful.

All of this puts the current branding in much better perspective. They did a great job overall and it has held up very well over time.

DeltaRules · Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:28 pm

While we're on "alternate universes", here are an A300 and A320 in Widget colors:
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 1645578240
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 8544366485

One concept livery on a 727: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4214369120
...and on an MD-88: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 2148972020

Jamake1 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:48 pm

I really enjoyed viewing these concepts. Thanks for the post. I like #1 and #2 best, though concept #1 reminds me of Canadian Pacific's final livery before becoming Canadian Airlines International. The concepts that attempted to incorporate the original widget logo were, in my opinion, quite hideous.

chepos · Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:50 pm

These are all awful, granted wavy gravy was not great either.

787fan8 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:54 pm

Thank you for sharing these concepts. If I had to choose, I'd go with #1 and #2.

flyer1225 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:29 pm

5 is a winner for me, but it's like declaring the next Miss America among 9 camels. "Colors in Motion" is only slightly better than these 9, thankfully the "modern widget" that we have now is a delight to the eyes...

Eirules · Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:44 pm

Number 3 by a country mile. But I'd say most are better than the current livery

atcsundevil · Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:51 pm

I actually would have liked those 20 years ago. They are dreadfully 90s though. A couple of these would have been better than wavy gravy though. That livery just lacked spirit.

Polot · Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:54 pm

Noise wrote:
Those liveries are so 90s...great find!

That is an understatement. Only thing missing is some teal and graffiti font because Delta is XTREME!, although they let their creative font juices flow with the Express branding.

catiii · Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:57 pm

What a great find!

#5 would have been much better than what they went with...

N776AU · Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:58 pm

Who do I talk to at Delta about this one?

leleko747 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:14 pm

Very nice find!
#3 is by far my favorite

#5 is just a refreshed version of the Widget livery... I fail to see any improvement.

The others are indeed quite forgettable and very 90ish indeed. A few of them remind me of USAir livery with white fuselage, don't know why!

b4thefall · Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:18 pm

Jamake1 wrote:
I really enjoyed viewing these concepts. Thanks for the post. I like #1 and #2 best, though concept #1 reminds me of Canadian Pacific's final livery before becoming Canadian Airlines International. The concepts that attempted to incorporate the original widget logo were, in my opinion, quite hideous.

As soon as I clicked on the 1st one, I thought exactly the same thing.... Canadian Airlines!

The only one I actually like is number 8..... the rest are awful! That's the problem with liveries that are too contemporary and follow current trends. They date really badly! I think this is going to be a problem with the current 'random wavy line' trend.

by738 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:20 pm

Someone had a good go with Microsoft Paint with some of those..
Very 90's. Worth a look for a giggle.

cosyr · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:14 pm

DeltaRules wrote:
One concept livery on a 727: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4214369120
...and on an MD-88: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 2148972020

With all those mock ups, looks like they were close to picking this one. It's alright, but a bit of a ripoff of USAir's livery in the 90's.

Boeing778X · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:21 pm

Oooo! Thanks for sharing! What have we here?

1. Very 80s-ish, but an interesting concept. Good colors. Dark Blue, Dark Grey and Bright Red look great together.
2. Not very exciting. Looks too corporate.
3. Very eye catching! Looks like an evolution of the widget gone well.
4. Modern, good colors, a bit underwhelming.
5. Nah. Less exciting than the widget.
6. I like the use of the grey in this. Kind of reminds me of CX. Still, overall, is average.
7. No! Much too bland!
8. Very nice! A variation of the "Deltaflot." The blues are extreme, love it!
9. Not bad! Surprisingly composed, professional, not opulent, but pleasant.

6, 8 and 9 are my favs!

josh3108 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:26 pm

I was at Atlantic Models once and the owner told me Southwest came to them before this newest livery and had several concepts they wanted put on models. Same as Spirit for the taxi colors. Would be pretty neat to see all of those as well.

coolian2 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:34 pm

Every one of those are actually awful.

11725Flyer · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:35 pm

I like #3 the best, but DL management probably thought it was too far out of the box at that time.

redzeppelin · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:45 pm

DeltaRules wrote:
While we're on "alternate universes", here are an A300 and A320 in Widget colors:
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 1645578240
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 8544366485

One concept livery on a 727: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4214369120
...and on an MD-88: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 2148972020

My 1990s self would have liked the 727 and MD88 concept livery.
Thanks for sharing!

jnev3289 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:49 pm

Soooo terrible, all off them

RockIsland41 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:50 pm

Number 8 is good but needs the widget on the tail.

Slash787 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:57 pm

Number 3 looks very Morden, it looks really good

irelayer · Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:04 pm

Love #7! (seems to be the clear favorite in this thread).

Great find.

-IR

Noise · Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:19 pm

#1 and #6 = Canadian Airlines

TW870 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:37 pm

Thanks for posting these - as it is so fun to look at them!

I agree with most posters that none of these are good. The worst thing are the 1990s serif fonts, which of course everyone loved at the time. As much as I still love the Northwest bowling shoe, the serif font sucks. I loved the sans serif 70s fonts that had been popular before (Northwest and United especially), and these pseudo fancy 90s serif replacements were a huge step down. The only serif font I love is Pan Am!

AA737-823 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:40 pm

3 and 8 are worthy of being on airplanes, and would still look fresh to this day. The rest are perhaps experiments of geometry and layout, and had they been applied to planes, would have aged poorly! In my opinion. It seems like someone in the financial office took a look and that wavy one, said "Ok, but make it TWO colors only," and that's what they went with. Pretty dull.

DeltaRules wrote:
While we're on "alternate universes", here are an A300 and A320 in Widget colors:
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 1645578240
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 8544366485

One concept livery on a 727: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4214369120
...and on an MD-88: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 2148972020

That MD-88 is actually an MD-90. Delta's mis-identified it on that website. Registration number or not, it's got supplemental elevators.

ikolkyo · Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:41 pm

AA737-823 wrote:
3 and 8 are worthy of being on airplanes, and would still look fresh to this day. The rest are perhaps experiments of geometry and layout, and had they been applied to planes, would have aged poorly! In my opinion. It seems like someone in the financial office took a look and that wavy one, said "Ok, but make it TWO colors only," and that's what they went with. Pretty dull.

DeltaRules wrote:
While we're on "alternate universes", here are an A300 and A320 in Widget colors:
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 1645578240
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 8544366485

One concept livery on a 727: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4214369120
...and on an MD-88: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 2148972020

That MD-88 is actually an MD-90. Delta's mis-identified it on that website. Registration number or not, it's got supplemental elevators.

Engines give it away also.

bohica · Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:10 pm

I like #3. :bigthumbsup:

Meh on #5 and #8.
The rest suck. :shakehead:

Thank God those liveries weren't used.

Channex757 · Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:17 pm

I looked at #8 and immediately thought "BOAC"

(that is not a bad thing BTW)

m0ssy · Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:30 pm

I love me some DL, but those painful!

lol

MSPSXMFLIER · Tue Aug 29, 2017 11:52 pm

Wow, every one of those concept liveries are just atrocious! I used to think the current scheme was too white and lacking in color, cheatline, etc..., but after seeing those, it looks quite good.

AtomicGarden · Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:44 am

Damn, no.3! why you not on aircraft?????

WN732 · Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:05 am

AA737-823 wrote:
3 and 8 are worthy of being on airplanes, and would still look fresh to this day. The rest are perhaps experiments of geometry and layout, and had they been applied to planes, would have aged poorly! In my opinion. It seems like someone in the financial office took a look and that wavy one, said "Ok, but make it TWO colors only," and that's what they went with. Pretty dull.

DeltaRules wrote:
While we're on "alternate universes", here are an A300 and A320 in Widget colors:
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 1645578240
http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 8544366485

One concept livery on a 727: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 4214369120
...and on an MD-88: http://delta.pastperfectonline.com/webo ... 2148972020

That MD-88 is actually an MD-90. Delta's mis-identified it on that website. Registration number or not, it's got supplemental elevators.

Yeah, that caught me too. Also the pylons for the engines and the size of the engines are giveaways.

DL747400 · Wed Aug 30, 2017 2:12 am

Like everything DL-related from this time period, these are all hideous. It pains me to even look at them. File these with Song and Delta Express, SimpliFares, Good Goes Around, the rounded/softened "frowning" widget, etc.

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