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Every once in a while a designer will come across somthing ugly and feel the need to do something about it. So it was with Squarespace Creative Director Tyler Thompson, who late last year found himself aesthetically offended by the mess that is a Delta Airlines boarding pass.
So I took out my Moleskine and started sketching. I tried to remember my previous trip through John F. Kennedy Airport and when and why I needed to reference my boarding pass. It seemed like I first needed to know which flight I was on. I put the gate right next to this, but made the flight number first because gates tend to change quite often. Next came my seat which I always look at a few times while boarding the plane. After that I put the zone, which is how they board the airplane initially and always seemed like the biggest cluster-fuck of people not knowing what zone they were in or how to find it on their pass. I also did something with the time I think might help, when it was a P.M. time, it was white text on a black box and when it was A.M. it was black text on a white box. Below is what I initially came up with.
Then came a colored variant:
What was fascinating was that other designers, upon reading Thompson's entry, started to pile on with their own re-designs. Check 'em out here.
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Tyler Thompson's boarding pass re-design pile-on
Conserve the white color more dude. Nothing like delta.
Thanks for an interesting post. I think this is great. Boarding passes are just about the worst piece of written communication in any industry.
In your prototype though, what do you think is the benefit of a white font on black background is? It looks cool but I think it is way too ink-intensive. Just the amount of ink for the black strip running down the middle is probably enough to print two or even three old-fashioned boarding passes. If I was an executive who is desperate to save costs, this wouldn't be an option.
That's my two cents.
However...do you realize how much ink is used to print those boarding passes? Maybe have these designs if you check-in online an print out your own?
--S