“All of Our Employees Are Part of the Lufthansa Story”

Lufthansa’s design is generally quite minimalist. How did the idea come about to design a much more colorful Lufthansa aircraft for the first time, on which employees could immortalize their drawings and stories?

Eva-Maria Hofer: The people who work for Lufthansa make it what it is. With this special livery, we want to honor their dedication and tell the story of Lufthansa from their perspective. That’s why we decided to find the best stories and tell them – together with the most important milestones in Lufthansa’s history – on an aircraft. "Made by many. Remembered by all”: that is our guiding principle for this project. This is an aircraft livery in which our employees are actively involved.

How were the stories selected?

Eva-Maria Hofer: We put out a call via our intranet and asked all Lufthansa Group employees what stories they would like to share on an airplane. There were no guidelines, because we really wanted to keep the process open and unrestricted. We received over 80 submissions. There were so many great stories that one plane is nowhere near big enough to tell them all.

What kinds of stories were there, for example?

Eva-Maria Hofer: Some employees drew on special moments from Lufthansa’s history and told them from their perspective. For instance, the story of the first scheduled internal flight in Germany in 1989 from Frankfurt to Leipzig. Others shared very personal experiences with us. One story is about how a male and female flight attendant met during a layover in Vancouver. They were both skiing there and sent us a very cute drawing of themselves on skis in the mountains. That will now adorn the aircraft.

How did you manage to choose from so many submissions?

Ronald Wild: Because we have limited space on the aircraft, we had to choose twelve designs. A jury therefore selected the 20 best stories, from which all employees were then able to choose their favorites. This way, as many people as possible were involved in the decision-making process.

Mr. Wild, as a designer, you are responsible for Lufthansa’s visual identity. What were the biggest challenges in this project?

Ronald Wild: Of all the designs for the Lufthansa Anniversary Fleet, this one was definitely the craziest. We’re really pushing the envelope here! But that’s not a problem for me, because this aircraft is intended to serve as a canvas for the employees. Nevertheless, this special livery does still follow a clear design concept: all of the images are incorporated into a gigantic crane that covers the entire aircraft. So you could say the stories of the employees are flying around the world with it.

Eva-Maria Hofer: Our aircraft connect people worldwide, and when they are seen, they carry our message out into the world. For this very special aircraft, the message is: throughout our 100-year history, Lufthansa has been shaped by people from a number of different fields. That’s why all our employees are part of the Lufthansa narrative.

The aircraft will mainly feature images and drawings. Where can people read the stories behind them?

Eva-Maria Hofer: Next to each design on the aircraft there will be a QR code that leads to a landing page with all the stories.

In addition to the employee designs, images from Lufthansa’s history will also be displayed on the aircraft. Can you give us some examples?

Ronald Wild: Right next to the cabin door, there will be a photo from the 1920s showing how passengers boarded an airplane for the maiden flight on April 6, 1926. We’re also honoring Lufthansa’s first two female pilots with a picture. And, of course, there’s the Lufthansa “victory plane” that flew the German national soccer team back to Germany in 2014 after winning the World Cup in Brazil.

How long and on which routes will the aircraft with the “Iconic Moments” livery fly?

Eva-Maria Hofer: We plan to operate the aircraft in Europe and at our German locations in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Munich until the end of Lufthansa’s anniversary year. It’s also important to note that we’ll be applying the employees’ designs gradually over the course of the year, so some picture frames will still be empty when the aircraft takes off for the first time. This way, everyone can watch as the aircraft slowly gets filled up over the course of the year. We’re really looking forward to seeing that happen!