As a Creative Director for a global innovation firm, I fly often. Having to get around the globe on short notice I sample a lot of airlines. All of us should be turning to the passenger next to us saying "can you believe this is really working" on every flight we take, but much of the majesty and magic has been sucked out of the flight experience. From the online booking process, the shoeless, beltless, TSA shuffle through security, to the ragged airplane interiors we are just trying to get through it, perhaps imagining we are in our "happy place".
Not on Virgin, where Sir Richard Branson, billionaire, innovator, adventurer (man crush) and Adam Wells, Virgin America's Design director, have created an immersive design based experience that brings back a touch of that wonder of flight. The planes are more than three years old now and it is amazing to see how far ahead they are of the competition. From the mood-lighting, to the CMF of the seat backs, to the sarcastic safety announcements, everything is just better. Because of routes (and my high mileage with United and Delta) I don't get to fly Virgin much. When I do, I'm reminded of the power of design to evoke a sense of dignity and fun to what is really an amazing fact of being hurtled through the air in a machine with a few strangers.
Appropriately, there is no one big WOW element in the design, but instead it is a collection of well orchestrated small things that make me actually want to be on the plane; like being able to order food anytime you want via the seat back UI, a remote control that feels like it was made in this century, a color palette that relates more to me than my grandmother and flight attendants that seem to be trained to be funny. So thank you Adam Wells. Thank you for not pandering, thank you for looking for the highest common denominator instead of the lowest, thank you for respecting your passengers and honoring the wonder of flight. Other airlines, take note, this is how you do it. Hope you are flying Virgin for the holidays!
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