Virgin Galactic dreams up the future of space tourism.
As Seen From Space
Letters From
the Future
The Galactic Girl
The Evolution
of Flight
hilippe Starck was the leading designer on the brand identity and he really looked at the entire customer journey,
As Seen
From Space
in search of the one aspect of the experience that was going to define Virgin Galactic. And he decided that it is not the rocket ride, it's not traveling at that incredible speed, and it's not floating in microgravity. It’s when you look out that window and see Earth for the first time. It's a transformational experience. It changes you forever. So he decided that was exactly what the visual identity needed to capture that moment when the human eye looks back on Earth. I think it’s an incredibly bold, audacious way to treat the visual identity project.”
he typography [designed by Dalton Maag works hard to make clear who we are and what we're doing within the space
industry. The logo and the typography [designed by Dalton Maag works hard to make clear who we are and what we're doing within the space industry. The logo and the typography complement each other fantastically. Together they communicate something far greater than what our usual visual idesee people receive a business card for more than onentity would communicate. We do anything. We do have to be recognizable as what it is. I think it quite cleverly uses a science fiction perspective without looking retrospective, like something from the original Star Trek. It takes that science fiction and molds it with looking at other progressive typography to create something that looks inherently progressive and forward-thinking."
Letters From
the Future
irgin Airlines put the Scarlet Lady on the side of every one of their planes, so it created its own lady for Galactic.
One of our carrier aircraft [the host planes from which Galactic launches their rockets] is called Mothership, and so Richard Branson said, 'Well, if you're going to have a mother ship, you should probably name it after your mother.' So the Mothership is named after Richard's mother, Evette. She’s one of the reasons why Richard is such an adventurer and a pioneer, and it represents the spirit of Virgin Galactic. And actually, the face of the Galactic girl is taken from an image of her when she was younger."
The Galactic
Girl
his is based on Floyd's Evolution of Flight. It's not our company logo, but it's something that we use a lot and which is
special to employees and customers alike. It starts with Icarus and goes up to the modern era. I think when customers see it, they realize the historic nature of what they're embarking on, that many of them will be in the first thousand people to leave the earth atmosphere. I don't think there's anything else in the world today, where you can become a part history like that. That's something that transcends entertainment or sports or anything."
Back to home
Story By ceros originals
Design by Jeremiah MCnair
The Evolution
of Flight
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his past July, Virgin Galactic became the first publicly traded commercial space company, with a listing on the stock
exchange to back up their ambition to launch ordinary citizens on suborbital flights. For many, space travel is a dream come true. And when you’re selling a dream, you can’t play it safe with the branding. This is no time for Helvetica, house plants, and people-pleasing pastels.
For Virgin Galactic the challenge was to create something that looked at home within Richard Branson’s Virgin family—which started as a British indie label and now includes airlines, hotels, even fitness challenges—while also capturing the breadth and brazenness of sending people to space. It needed to honor aeronautic tradition—Galactic Girl, below, is a nod to the pin-up style paintings on WWII fighter planes—while charting new futuristic territory.
To Galactic's Design Director, Tom Westray, it’s essential that Virgin Galactic's branding “reinforces the human spirit and the importance of human endeavor and exploration.” This is more than launching a new brand; it’s breaking the bounds of human mobility. “It’s breathtaking,” he says, “so it can't be stolid and unremarkable. It has to evoke some sense of transcendence and endeavor, right? I mean has to be bold.”
Here Westray explains Galactic’s key visual components.