In 1963, Austrian Airlines, Osterreichische Luft-verkehre-AG, settled on the abbreviation “AUA”. Unfortunately, this alphabetic combination was one of many that was not well-received internationally, and contributed to negative associations in German-speaking countries. Aiming to improve their overall corporate image, Austrian Airlines staged a competition in 1969 to find a new logo. Unusually, the participants were Viennese design students.

As outlined in the contest brief, it was said that the new logo must be appropriate for the international scope of the airline, and whilst the contest encouraged creative freedom, it was also emphasised that the logo would appear alongside the existing ‘Austrian Airlines’ logotype and therefore it should be created with this harmony in mind.

Continue reading to discover some of the logo concepts submitted by the students, the legibility tests conducted on the final three, and examples of the final logo’s construction and application.