Alaska Airlines

Official Websites

• https://www.alaskaair.com
• https://news.alaskaair.com
• https://alaskabrandstudio.com

Brand Guidelines

2019

Brand Summary

Mission

• Creating an airline people love.

Core Values

• Own safety
• Do the right thing
• Be kind-hearted
• Deliver Performance
• Be remarkable

Target Audience

• Travelers seeking a positive, authentic, and modern airline experience; guests who value hospitality, performance, and genuine connections.

Personality Traits

• Conversational
• Relatable
• Smart
• Empathetic
• Enthusiastic
• Approachable
• Playful
• West Coast vibe

Visual Identity Overview

• The visual identity is clean, modern, and approachable, featuring a bold, stylized wordmark, a palette inspired by the night sky and aurora borealis, expressive custom typography, friendly iconography, and bright, authentic photography. The brand emphasizes clear space, organic forms, and a sense of motion and vibrancy throughout its visual elements.

Categories

Brand Voice

• Hospitality is the key to our relationships with our guests and each other. Putting guests first requires that we understand our relationship status.
• Keep it real and keep it Alaska.
• Be conversational. Be clear. Have fun.
• Engage in a way that’s unconventional, while remembering we’re trusted to fly airplanes.
• Invite guests in, but don’t tell them where to go.
• Go beyond the obvious to find the worthwhile experience.
• If regulations require us to say it, then say it. Transparency is the best policy.
• Approach irregular operations from the guests’ perspective.
• Take personal responsibility.
• Do all we can to make things right.
• Get excited to write and they’ll be excited to read.
• Our writing style is… Conversational - Relatable - Smart
• For the most part, copy should feel conversational, natural to how a person would speak, with a dash of clever. We want to be polished and smart, but we also want to speak with the audience, rather than at them.
• Whenever appropriate, we can reference something that a viewer of a specific placement would get almost as an inside joke, but not so inside that it becomes too niche. It should feel like a knowing wink that our audience appreciates, and not like we’re pandering.
• We like wordplay, but used sparingly. It should be smart, never corny or eye roll-inducing. Think plays on phonetic similarities over outright puns.

Brand Imagery

• Our world is positive and bright. It’s honest but finds the colorful and modern elements of the real world. We would like to freeze-frame happiness all over in the most local, authentic way possible.
• Our photography should reach beyond our brand colors, adding brightness, vibrancy and overall happiness to the layouts.
• Our world is not plastic, overly stylized, dark or surreal. It doesn’t have posed models. It isn’t busy or complex.
• We show people exploring places. We show our product in natural use. We show our places in unique context. We leave a little to the imagination, inviting the viewer to explore more.
• Contextual imagery should be 80% visually resting, with no interference in that area.
• Accents in the imagery should be anchored to the bottom of the image and take up 25% of real estate.
• All images should use cool colors.
• Logos should live above the 25% mark.

Color Palette

• The Primary Palette is Midnight Blue and White. Midnight Blue was inspired by the night sky. It’s a strong neutral that represents performance.
• The Secondary Palette is Atlas Blue, Breeze Blue and Tropical Green. These come from the mid­tones of the aurora borealis.
• The Tertiary Palette is Calm Blue, Mist Gray and Palm Green. These core supporting colors are not replacements for white.
• Never: • Use colorjust for decoration. • Use secondary palette without the core colors. • Use secondary or tertiary palette in exchange for White.
• The Soft Palette is Type Gray.
• Midnight Blue PANTONE 7694 C / 2187 U HEX: 01426A CMYK: 100.57.9.52 RGB: 1.66.106
• White PANTONE (NIA) HEX: FFFFF CMYK: 0.0.0.0. RGB: 255.255.255
• Atlas Blue PANTONE 2383 C /7461 U HEX: 2774AE CMYK: 83.40.3.6 RGB: 39.116.174
• Breeze Blue PANTONE 7702 C / 2200 U HEX: 48A9C5 CMYK: 68.1.8.8 RGB: 72.169.197
• Palm Green PANTONE Cool Gray 9 C I U HEX: B3D57D CMKY: 33. 0. 60. 0 RGB: 179. 213. 125
• Calm Blue PANTONE 2156 C / 2155 U HEX: 8BA6C1 CMYK: 51.23.11.0 RGB: 139.166.193
• Mist Gray
• Tropical Green
• Type Gray PANTONE Cool Gray9 C / U HEX:656565 CMYK:30.22.17.57 RGB: 117.120.123
• Type Gray supports our approachable brand voice, softening our expression of type that would otherwise be black in color. Use for headlines and body copy. Also for cases in which typography cannot be reversed to White or set in a Core palette color.
• The Digital Color Palette ncludes variations on the Brand colors for use specifically and only in digital spaces.
• Colors for user interface elements including Buttons, Icons, Links, Headings and Type.
• This palette is currently being refined to include continuous user interface needs. The HEX values shown are for general reference and subject to change; please email Digital-Experience-Guide@ alaskaair.com for the latest version.
• User Interface Digital version of brand colors modified for greater vibrancy on-screen and digital usage Digital Midnight Blue HEX: 01426A Digital Atlas Blue HEX: 0074C8 Digital Breeze Blue HEX: 00C7E6 Digital Tropical Green HEX: C0E585
• Typography For all live type: headlines, labels, headers, body copy, and legal Orca HEX: 222222 White HEX: 01426A Shark HEX: 6E7783 Manatee HEX: 9FABBB Fog HEX: C8C9C7 Galapagos HEX: 008568
• Background Colors for backgrounds and dividing lines Digital Midnight Blue HEX: 01426A White HEX: FFFFFF Cloud HEX: F7F7F7 Mist HEX: E8E8E8 Dusk HEX: 336787 Digital Palm Green HEX: 53B390

Typography

• AS Circular is used for headlines and body copy in core brand communications. It has five distinct weights. Use these weights to create an easy-to-read typographic hierarchy.
• Please make sure that the settings for “ligatures” is set to “off.” Ligatures are when specific characters have a designed connection to another character. fl is the most common occurance.
• Light, Book, Medium are body copy.
• Bold is for headlines & subheads.
• Black is for special occasions, like short headers, small subheads or when we need to differentiate content hierarchy.
• Primary Colors are Midnight Blue, Atlas Blue, White, Type Gray.
• Breeze Blue is a secondary color and is to be used sparingly as an accent color.
• AS Circular Bold appears first in the typographic hierarchy, as heads & subheads.
• AS Circular Light, Book or Medium are body copy.
• To get AS Circular typeface, contact alaskabrand@alaskaair.com.
• Highest Praise and is strictly reserved for application on materials used on board.
• Cups, napkins, headphone packaging and the seatback cards are all areas where this typeface is used.
• Freight Micro is an Adobe TypeKit font that is used for body copy in publications like the Beyond Magazine, Uniform Lookbook, etc.
• This typeface should only be used for body copy 12pt or below.
• Type Gray supports our approachable brand voice, softening our expression of type that would otherwise be black in color.
• Use for headlines and body copy.
• Also for cases in which typography cannot be reversed to White or set in a Core palette color.

Logo Usage

• The Contextual Wordmark: use it in airport environments, in aircraft, on aircraft and on our digital channels. These are all arenas where it’s pretty easy to figure out we’re an airline, so we don’t need to say it.
• The Official Wordmark: use it everywhere else.
• Use the Midnight or White logo for core branded creative.
• The logo can be shown in Atlas or Breeze when used in the context of the “Fly Smart. Land Happy.” campaign, only when it makes sense to match the logo color to the type color.
• Follow clear space guidance.
• Don’t: • Alter, rotate or modify it. • Animate it. • Surround it with other designs. • Accessorize it with extra elements like speech bubbles. • Anthropomorphize it. • Overemphasize it. • Use previous versions of it.
• Our word mark works best when it has some breathing room, so surround it with wide open spaces.
• The amount of unobstructed clear space that must surround the wordmark is at least 1X, where X equals the ascender of the “k” in the word mark.
• The clear space should always be away from all elements of the word mark, except for the®
• Don’t go smaller than 54 pixels wide so we can maintain visual impact.
• Wordmark: .75 inch / 19 mm / 54 px f/asd. I I
• Wordmark: .75 inch / 19 mm / 54 px ms&a. A I R L I N E S I
• To get the® the right size, use a size-appropriate version of the Alaska word mark.
• We’re showing the contextual word mark only as the example.
• But sizing and basic naming structure are the same for both our contextual and official wordmarks.

Tone And Messaging

• Hospitality is the key to our relationships with our guests and each other. Putting guests first requires that we understand our relationship status.
• Keep it real and keep it Alaska.
• Be conversational. Be clear. Have fun.
• Engage in a way that’s unconventional, while remembering we’re trusted to fly airplanes.
• Invite guests in, but don’t tell them where to go.
• Go beyond the obvious to find the worthwhile experience.
• If regulations require us to say it, then say it. Transparency is the best policy.
• Approach irregular operations from the guests’ perspective.
• Take personal responsibility.
• Do all we can to make things right.
• Get excited to write and they’ll be excited to read.
• OUR WRITING STYLE IS… Conversational - Relatable - Smart
• For the most part, copy should feel conversational, natural to how a person would speak, with a dash of clever. We want to be polished and smart, but we also want to speak with the audience, rather than at them.
• Whenever appropriate, we can reference something that a viewer of a specific placement would get almost as an inside joke, but not so inside that it becomes too niche. It should feel like a knowing wink that our audience appreciates, and not like we’re pandering.
• We like wordplay, but used sparingly. It should be smart, never corny or eye roll-inducing. Think plays on phonetic similarities over outright puns.

Brand Values

• These should only be combined or used in groups when showcasing the brand values.
• Jessica created our brand phrases and values in a fluid, hand-drawn style that shows movement, playfulness and a West Coast vibe.

Visual Style

• The Contextual Wordmark: use it in airport environments, in aircraft, on aircraft and on our digital channels. These are all arenas where it’s pretty easy to figure out we’re an airline, so we don’t need to say it.
• The Official Wordmark: use it everywhere else.
• Use the Midnight or White logo for core branded creative.
• The logo can be shown in Atlas or Breeze when used in the context of the “Fly Smart. Land Happy.” campaign, only when it makes sense to match the logo color to the type color.
• Follow clear space guidance.
• Don’t: • Alter, rotate or modify it. • Animate it. • Surround it with other designs. • Accessorize it with extra elements like speech bubbles. • Anthropomorphize it. • Overemphasize it. • Use previous versions of it.

Iconography

• Our icons are friendly, modern & confident. They’ve been designed for the digital space, as well as printed assets. We only show a few samples here, but many more have been developed and are available in our icon library. You can find access to that library through our full icon guidelines.
• Icons can be scaled to provide 3 sizes: small (16px), medium (24px), and large (32px). Rare cases allow for larger sizes; start with the large size first as it has more details and use the guidelines to create the illustration.
• Use the color palette that’s directly related to where the icons will be used/displayed -print icons can use our core brand colors. For digital, use the digital color palette. Color should be used strategically; for example, use black or Orea when aligning an icon with static text, or use an actionable color like Digital Atlas Blue when the icon is included as part of a link.
• We recommend Adobe Illustrator (or, secondarily, Sketch App) for icon creation. Our Alaska Icon Guidelines document has a number of rules to follow to help your icon fit in with the set, including overall size, line weight, corner radius, color, and pointers on how to make your icon pixel perfect (important for a crisp and readable icon in digital spaces).
• For a copy of the most recent icon files and usage guidelines, contact Digital-Experience-Guide@ alaskaair.com
• Airplane icon should always be the color of the typography used.
• Icon width should be the letterform width.
• If space permits, airplane icon should have 2x the space from the top compared to the headline.
• When between airport codes, the airplane should be the same height as the font.

Layout And Composition

• Follow clear space guidance.
• Don’t: • Alter, rotate or modify it. • Animate it. • Surround it with other designs. • Accessorize it with extra elements like speech bubbles. • Anthropomorphize it. • Overemphasize it. • Use previous versions of it.
• Our word mark works best when it has some breathing room, so surround it with wide open spaces.
• The amount of unobstructed clear space that must surround the wordmark is at least 1X, where X equals the ascender of the “k” in the word mark.
• The clear space should always be away from all elements of the word mark, except for the®
• Don’t go smaller than 54 pixels wide so we can maintain visual impact.
• Wordmark: .75 inch / 19 mm / 54 px f/asd.
• Wordmark: .75 inch / 19 mm / 54 px ms&a. A I R L I N E S I
• To get the® the right size, use a size-appropriate version of the Alaska word mark.
• We’re showing the contextual word mark only as the example.
• But sizing and basic naming structure are the same for both our contextual and official wordmarks.
• Large
• Medium
• Very small
• 5.5" and larger
• up to 5.5"
• 1.125’ up to 2°
• up to 1.125"

Digital Guidelines

• The Contextual Wordmark: use it in airport environments, in aircraft, and on our digital channels. These are all arenas where it’s pretty easy to figure out we’re an airline, so we don’t need to say it.
• Use the Midnight or White logo for core branded creative.
• The logo can be shown in Atlas or Breeze when used in the context of the “Fly Smart. Land Happy.” campaign, only when it makes sense to match the logo color to the type color.
• Follow clear space guidance.
• Don’t: • Alter, rotate or modify it. • Animate it. • Surround it with other designs. • Accessorize it with extra elements like speech bubbles. • Anthropomorphize it. • Overemphasize it. • Use previous versions of it.
• The Digital Color Palette ncludes variations on the Brand colors for use specifically and only in digital spaces.
• Colors for user interface elements including Buttons, Icons, Links, Headings and Type.
• This palette is currently being refined to include continuous user interface needs. The HEX values shown are for general reference and subject to change; please email Digital-Experience-Guide@ alaskaair.com for the latest version.
• User Interface Digital version of brand colors modified for greater vibrancy on-screen and digital usage Digital Midnight Blue HEX: 01426A Digital Atlas Blue HEX: 0074C8 Digital Breeze Blue HEX: 00C7E6 Digital Tropical Green HEX: C0E585
• Typography For all live type: headlines, labels, headers, body copy, and legal Orca HEX: 222222 White HEX: 01426A Shark HEX: 6E7783 Manatee HEX: 9FABBB Fog HEX: C8C9C7 Galapagos HEX: 008568
• Background Colors for backgrounds and dividing lines Digital Midnight Blue HEX: 01426A White HEX: FFFFFF Cloud HEX: F7F7F7 Mist HEX: E8E8E8 Dusk HEX: 336787 Digital Palm Green HEX: 53B390
• Our icons are friendly, modern & confident. They’ve been designed for the digital space, as well as printed assets.
• Icons can be scaled to provide 3 sizes: small (16px), medium (24px), and large (32px). Rare cases allow for larger sizes; start with the large size first as it has more details and use the guidelines to create the illustration.
• Use the color palette that’s directly related to where the icons will be used/displayed -print icons can use our core brand colors. For digital, use the digital color palette. Color should be used strategically; for example, use black or Orea when aligning an icon with static text, or use an actionable color like Digital Atlas Blue when the icon is included as part of a link.
• We recommend Adobe Illustrator (or, secondarily, Sketch App) for icon creation. Our Alaska Icon Guidelines document has a number of rules to follow to help your icon fit in with the set, including overall size, line weight, corner radius, color, and pointers on how to make your icon pixel perfect (important for a crisp and readable icon in digital spaces).
• For a copy of the most recent icon files and usage guidelines, contact Digital-Experience-Guide@ alaskaair.com

Print Guidelines

• Use the Midnight or White logo for core branded creative.
• The logo can be shown in Atlas or Breeze when used in the context of the “Fly Smart. Land Happy.” campaign, only when it makes sense to match the logo color to the type color.
• Follow clear space guidance.
• Don’t: • Alter, rotate or modify it. • Animate it. • Surround it with other designs. • Accessorize it with extra elements like speech bubbles. • Anthropomorphize it. • Overemphasize it. • Use previous versions of it.
• The Primary Palette is Midnight Blue and White. Midnight Blue was inspired by the night sky. It’s a strong neutral that represents performance.
• The Secondary Palette is Atlas Blue, Breeze Blue and Tropical Green. These come from the mid­tones of the aurora borealis.
• The Tertiary Palette is Calm Blue, Mist Gray and Palm Green. These core supporting colors are not replacements for white.
• Never: • Use colorjust for decoration. • Use secondary palette without the core colors. • Use secondary or tertiary palette in exchange for White.
• The Soft Palette is Type Gray.
• Midnight Blue PANTONE 7694 C / 2187 U HEX: 01426A CMYK: 100.57.9.52 RGB: 1.66.106
• White PANTONE (NIA) HEX: FFFFF CMYK: 0.0.0.0. RGB: 255.255.255
• Atlas Blue PANTONE 2383 C /7461 U HEX: 2774AE CMYK: 83.40.3.6 RGB: 39.116.174
• Breeze Blue PANTONE 7702 C / 2200 U HEX: 48A9C5 CMYK: 68.1.8.8 RGB: 72.169.197
• Palm Green PANTONE Cool Gray 9 C I U HEX: B3D57D CMKY: 33. 0. 60. 0 RGB: 179. 213. 125
• Calm Blue PANTONE 2156 C / 2155 U HEX: 8BA6C1 CMYK: 51.23.11.0 RGB: 139.166.193
• Mist Gray I5w:sea II@KEad eE@kc
• Tropical Green
• Type Gray PANTONE Cool Gray9 C / U HEX:656565 CMYK:30.22.17.57 RGB: 117.120.123
• Type Gray supports our approachable brand voice, softening our expression of type that would otherwise be black in color. Use for headlines and body copy. Also for cases in which typography cannot be reversed to White or set in a Core palette color.

Promotion Insights

Color Analysis

Statistics computed across 1353 images

Tone Distribution

Sample Images

Image 1

Passionate, dedicated and simply amazing. Today, we want to take a moment to say thank you to all of our employees across our company. You truly make our airline take flight. #iAmAlaska

Attributes:

• Caption: A woman in a blue shirt smiles at a customer.
• Keywords: woman, smile, blue shirt, customer, airport, ticketing, counter, computer, terminal, airline, travel, service, assistance, employee, work, job, friendly, helpful, communication, interaction

Image 2

Passionate, dedicated and simply amazing. Today, we want to take a moment to say thank you to all of our employees across our company. You truly make our airline take flight. #iAmAlaska

Attributes:

• Caption: A woman wearing a pilot’s hat and shirt is sitting in the cockpit of a plane.
• Keywords: pilot, cockpit, airplane, woman, hat, shirt, glasses, smile, control panel, instruments, buttons, dials, switches, knobs

Image 3

Passionate, dedicated and simply amazing. Today, we want to take a moment to say thank you to all of our employees across our company. You truly make our airline take flight. #iAmAlaska

Attributes:

• Caption: A man working on a plane
• Keywords: airplane, man, pilot, plane, control panel, cockpit, airport, airline, Alaska Airlines

Image 4

Passionate, dedicated and simply amazing. Today, we want to take a moment to say thank you to all of our employees across our company. You truly make our airline take flight. #iAmAlaska

Attributes:

• Caption: A man in an orange vest poses in front of a Horizon plane.
• Keywords: man, orange vest, airplane, horizon, smiling, front, white plane, airport, worker, uniform, safety jacket, identification badge, identification card, identification lanyard

Image 5

There is nothing like celebrating #PalmSpringsPride IRL! Last night, we lit up the night with our partner @PNTAlive. If you missed the show, catch us in tomorrow’s parade! #FlyWithPride

Attributes:

• Caption: An Alaska Airlines plane on the runway at night
• Keywords: Alaska Airlines, airplane, airport, night, runway, plane, airliner, lights, airport lighting, plane lights, airplane lights, airport runway, airplane on runway, nighttime, airplane on tarmac

Image 6

There is nothing like celebrating #PalmSpringsPride IRL! Last night, we lit up the night with our partner @PNTAlive. If you missed the show, catch us in tomorrow’s parade! #FlyWithPride

Attributes:

• Caption: A plane with a man on the tail is on a runway
• Keywords: airplane, alaska, airport, nighttime, mountain, runway, lights, tail, man, plane, airport, night, mountain, runway, lights, tail, man, plane

Image 7

Ready to score big? The @SeattleKraken Expansion Draft starts in 15 minutes! Check back at 5pm for your chance to to win air travel, Kraken game tickets and a co-branded hockey table. Make sure you’re following us! #AlaskaAirHockey

Attributes:

• Caption: A logo for Alaska Air Lines and the Seattle Kraken hockey team
• Keywords: Alaska, Air Lines, Seattle, Kraken, hockey, logo, airlines, sports, team, sponsorship

Image 8

This one hits close to home! Congratulations, @11EdgarMartinez, on your induction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame! 🏆 #HOF2019

Attributes:

• Caption: A baseball player wearing a jersey with the number 11.
• Keywords: baseball, player, jersey, number 11, Cooperstown, Martinez

Image 9

This one hits close to home! Congratulations, @11EdgarMartinez, on your induction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame! 🏆 #HOF2019

Attributes:

• Caption: A batter standing at home plate with a bat and the word Cooperstown on the screen.
• Keywords: batter, baseball, baseball bat, Cooperstown, player, sports, team, jersey, number 11, Mariners, baseball field, stadium, home plate, sports player, sports team, sports jersey, next stop

Image 10

Our PRIDE flies nonstop. We’re proud to be an airline that supports equality for our employees and in our community. #FlyWithPride #iAmAlaska #SFPride

Attributes:

• Caption: A group of people are celebrating pride day with flags and sunglasses.
• Keywords: pride day, flags, sunglasses, celebration, people, crowd, happy, excited, waving, holding, colorful, rainbow, parade, festival, outdoor, event, community, inclusive

… and 1343 more images

Additional Properties