Two very familiar identities in airline travel were smooshed together this week. The new "bidentity" (or is it "flydentity"?) will keep the Continental name and the logo and colors of the United brand.

It was an amalgamation likely concocted in the interest of time, and it seems impossible that we wouldn't see a totally new logo within the year. But it's a shame that what is now the largest carrier couldn't have done something more inspiring than cherry–picking components and Scotch–taping them together. Witness the merger of Dresdner Bank and Commerzebank in Germany in 2009. MetaDesign deftly combined the identities of both historic brands–saving valuable components of each–into an fresh identity that employees and customers alike could continue standing behind.

The Continentited logo, on the other hand, has an odd, almost punked feel, like the new Sarah Palin brands Felix Sockwell created for a recent issue of New York magazine.

www.unitedcontinentalmerger.com
www.csmonitor.com

See Felix's art at…
drawger.com