Sector: Travel & Hospitality
Few brands carry the century-long legacy of Finnair. The renewed visual identity translates the updated brand strategy into a confident, cohesive system that redefines how the airline expresses Finnishness in a global, digital-first world. Centered on the iconic emblem, the identity extends across typography, iconography, colour, and illustration—creating a flexible, timeless system rooted in Finnair’s heritage.
Personally selected by the client to lead the project throughout, I defined the vision, design direction, and strategic foundation for the new identity ensuring it worked across all major customer touchpoints.
Brand Identity Creative Director & Design Director
FULL CASE – WORK IN PROGRESS…
Challenge: Finnair’s long-standing “Modern Nordic” identity had begun to lose clarity and emotional resonance. Functional but fragmented, it no longer captured the warmth and precision central to Finnish design. Externally, it risked blending into a ‘sky of sameness’ airlines. The challenge was to restore distinctiveness and redefine what “Finnish” means for a global audience, creating an identity that feels unmistakably Finnair: modern, confident, and grounded in heritage.
Stakeholder Engagement: The renewal was built through close collaboration with Finnair’s internal teams. Co-creation workshops and interviews shaped the brand’s future ambition across visual, spatial, and digital touchpoints. These sessions fostered shared ownership and excitement, sparking a renewed cultural moment within the organization and strengthening pride in what Finnair represents.
Approach: The renewal began with a holistic audit to uncover the brand’s most enduring elements. The iconic “F” emblem — a trusted mark since the 1950s — became the central anchor, inspiring a complete visual language of typography, iconography, and form. A custom typeface family balances clarity and charm, with proportions drawn from the emblem and a sense of joyful precision. From the outset, all core assets are designed to perform seamlessly across screens, interfaces, and physical environments.
Solution: The renewed identity celebrates Finnair’s duality of heritage and modernity, uniting precision, emotion, and timeless design culture. Designed for a connected world, the system scales seamlessly across physical and digital environments — from airport signage to apps, inflight screens, and social media. It delivers clear hierarchy, flexibility, and an authentic link to Finnair’s heritage, ensuring coherence without losing warmth or humanity. The result is a more unified, confident, and recognisable Finnair — modern yet deeply rooted in its origins.
In collaboration with lead agency Ivalo Creative, and partner agencies Adventure Club Avian.
Advertising by Ivalo Creative and SEK.
Special thanks to the Finnish Aviation Museum for access to the archives.