easyJet
Founder and owner Stelios Haji-Ioannou on the first easyJet flight from Luton to Glasgow, Nov. 10, 1995.
British low-cost airline easyJet was established in 1995 as the first company in what would later become the easyGroup conglomerate. Right from the start, the visual identity was based on the color orange and chubby Cooper Black, making it a perfect candidate for our tag typeface plus color equals brand. The brand manual defines it as:
(a) white lettering on an orange background (Pantone® 021c on glossy print materials; on other surfaces the nearest practicable equivalent) and
(b) in Cooper Black font (not bold, italics, outline nor underlined) the word “easy” in lower case followed (without space) by another word, only the initial letter of which is capitalised
For the first few years, the jets’ fuselages displayed the booking phone number in Cooper Black’s gently ranging oldstyle numerals. In 1998, when online bookings became more popular, the numbers were replaced with the web address, with “.com” set in Futura.
The manual acknowledges that “the Cooper Black font has played an important part in building the ‘easy’ brand. Its bold, confident and distinct appearance has made it recognisable and associated with ’easy’. Its soft friendly curves have given a warm personality to the ‘easy’ businesses.” Unlike in the early days, Cooper Black nowadays is only to be used for the business names. The business names should always appear in Cooper Black, though, even in body text.
“Picture this: a sky full of thunder / Picture this: my telephone number” (Boeing 737-3M8; Jan. 1998, BKU)
The iconic livery with the easyJet.com web address (A319-111 at CDG)
The lettering typically is positioned and sized so that the windows align more or less with the counter in ‘a’ as well as the interior space of ‘J’ (Photo by www.heatheronhertravels.com).
The 200th easyJet Airbus (A320-200) is painted in inverse colors. Spotted in Dec. 2014 at TLS.
The Romeo Alpha Juliet (A319-111) celebrates the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth in 2014.
In 2015, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary, easyJet announced a refreshed livery. This image shows the special “20 years” jubilee edition, a variation of the new look, taking off from ZRH in April 2017.
A good logo needs to work even when faxed, they said. And when embroidered!
Contender for largest application of Cooper Black: Hangar 89 at Luton airport, easyJet’s corporate office.
The “easy” brand owned by the easyGroup is licenced to an ever-growing number of “easy” branded businesses. It “currently operates in more than a dozen industries mainly in travel, leisure, serviced office accommodation and other consumer facing sectors” — from easyBus to easyLimousines, and from easyPizza to easyGym — all united by the brand formula orange plus Cooper Black.
