I’m enjoying one of the recent Northwest items donated to the Delta Archives. This issue of Northwest’s employee magazine was all about the airline’s new 1969 logo, “a new look for the fast-paced 1970’s.”
Reading the magazine, I found out a red, white and blue version of the logo was seriously considered. Also, the stylized red tail in a circle without the name (Northwest Orient) allowed the logo to be printed in very small size without losing its clarity (see image below). This logo lasted Northwest well beyond the 1970s, until 1987, and ended up being the airline’s longest running brand.
Northwest Passages was a gift of Richard Briggs with other items collected by his father Northwest pilot Dan Briggs.
Marie Force
Archives Manager
February 20th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Living in Michigan, I certainly remember this logo. Q: Did NWA have a ‘name’ for this stylized logo? (i.e. the DL widget)?
February 20th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
The “New Look” corporate symbol that debuted in ‘69 was a (then) contemporary derivative of Northwest’s long established red tail device, and was created by Clarence K.M. Lee. It was the focus of a new brand, a system-wide “new look,” that changed the appearance of every item that carried the Northwest name, from aircraft to letterheads and boarding passes, and everything inbetween!
Don
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I know this is off topic, but I saw a delta plane yesterday or was it Friday.
Half Delta half KLM
The first half of the plane was White with a Delta logo, then the second part of the plane was light blue with a KLM logo on the tail.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
It’s a lovely look but I still prefer the (old) Landor-designed compass logo. I think it was extraordinarily elegant the way the arrow point melded with the slanted N. Subtle was the NW initials… And it never had to point northeast when placed on the side of a plane…
March 14th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I remember someone on a marketing oriented web site a few years ago talking about the 1989 Landor logo.
He said “It’s an N. It’s a W. It’s a compass pointing to the northwest. In a word, perfect. Don’t ever change it.”
Of course, NWA did change it, so the compass no longer included the N indicating north, and the pointer now faced northeast on the right side of the airplane.