The Approach

The first step was a working session with the Datalex team, supported by a number of interviews with customer owners, with several objectives in mind: to define the Brand Personality, refine the Purpose Statement, develop the creative brief to aid the design team as it evolved the Datalex visual brand, and to develop the creative brief for the writing team to deliver a new tagline and Brand Story narrative for Datalex. With all the groundwork completed, it was time to turn our focus to the sky above.

Stars have always been part of Datalex's identity, but with a re-dedicated brand purpose and a new management team on hand to offer steady guidance, we felt it was time to follow the brightest star in the northern sky. The North Star leads those who follow it toward a purposeful destination. It has a symbolic significance as it is a beacon of inspiration and hope which, we felt, was a perfect symbol for Datalex as it set out to leave the challenges of the past behind. Furthermore, Datalex itself is a beacon of sorts. It knows what's happening in the market and is moving forward, ready to guide the airline industry through the digital retail transformation.

The Execution

We chose a vibrant orange for the Datalex North Star beacon and paired it with a trustworthy charcoal for the name itself. For the visual language, we introduced a secondary palette with specific colours assigned to different Datalex product offerings. We also isolated part of the beacon to create a Datalex pattern which can be added to all touchpoints, echoing the sentiment that Datalex is going in the right direction at all times. All Datalex hero imagery uses a beacon of light within it to represent the brightest star in the sky, ensuring we take ownership of our imagery style while bringing consistency across all our collateral.

Moving away from the visual language, we originated the tagline 'Transforming Airline Retail' which distils Datalex's offering into an easily understandable proposition. We also contributed to new product names and a new design system for current and future products. Elsewhere, the identity's primary font is the appropriately named Cabin, a humanist font with a touch of modernism that conveys reliability and professionalism in all communications.