Aurelius Airlines Logo & Branding

The goal of this project was to create a new airline and provide it with a comprehensive branding treatment. I chose to create a Rome-centered airline, drawing inspiration from Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher. The brand focuses on timeless luxury and comfort.

I started with the idea of a Roman statue head for the logo. I then decided to add the olive branch crown to give the brand a more premium feel and tie better into the Roman theme.

Initially, I struggled to find the right form for the crown. It either looked like a braid of hair or distracted too much from the face of the logo.

Ultimately, I simplified the crown as much as possible and added stem lines to some of the leaves to better represent actual leaves, without adding too many small details.

I chose to thicken the outline to help it stand out and give it that extra pop. I also softened many of the angles in the logo to give it a more friendly and welcoming feeling. I added the two curved lines behind the logomark to give it more motion and help tie it with the typography. They also invoke the form of a plane's tail wing.

The font choice was tough, I wanted something that harkened back to classical roman luxury, but also felt modern enough to be on an airplane.

I settled on PF Marlet Display for my primary font because I felt it best blended classical and modern luxury styles. I paired it with Helvetica Neue, for its versatility and visual similarities to my primary font.

For the colors, I knew I wanted a stone white for the main parts of the statue head and gold for the crown. I chose a navy blue to serve as my outline and shadows to give more visual interest as opposed to the charcoal color I started with.

Through research, I discovered that many ancient romans among the high class wore lots of royal red and purple fabrics, so I decided to implement those colors into the brand as my other primary and secondary colors.