2012 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

The main challenges and objectives were: – Involve all stakeholders, to ensure consensus and support. – Combine strategy with design, so the rebrand fed into business objectives.

The Brief

Our audit found Dubai Airports was using over 900 different brandmarks. It was a confused picture, made worse by the lack of any consistent visual language. And it was hindering plans to become a fully-fledged commercial company, open a second airport and establish global leadership status. Our brief was threefold: – Resolve the identity issues with a new, simpler and better brandmark. – Create external and internal visual languages to accompany it. – Use these as our starting point to help the business achieve its aims, and make a step change towards creating the world’s greatest airport experience.

How the final design was conceived

After understanding certain issues from stakeholders, we proposed a revised architecture, reducing 900 to a few core identities, and explained how to leverage commercial benefit and build brand equity so the rebrand delivered strategic goals. Our rebrand is simpler, stronger and more contemporary. ‘Connecting the world’ is its core, directly delivering the company’s strategy. It dynamically evokes a globe and Islamic patterns. We redrew Frutiger – with its airport origins – for Arabic and English typography. The colour palette came from the stratosphere’s rich blues, and accompanying visual language from the interlocking diamonds of Islamic art.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Since the brand was launched, Dubai Airports has risen two places to become the world’s 4th biggest in terms of international passenger traffic. As this programme progresses, we are also correlating its effectiveness using measures independently assessed every quarter by the Airports Council International. Topics such as wayfinding and signage, ambience of the airport, helpfulness of staff and so on. All have shown improvements since the rebrand. “Our new identity is a step change from where we were. It’s invaluable as well as beautiful, because it increases impact, consistency and status, delivering our strategic goals.” Paul Griffiths, CEO Dubai Airports