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Tyler Thompson's boarding pass re-design pile-on

By Rain Noe - April 21, 2010

in Object Culture

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.

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ALMOLVEKARO

14 years ago

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I have to write a paper about how enclosure was the most important new procedure to come out of the time period we are studying. Unfortunately, though, my research keeps leading me to only negative things about enclosure. Does anyone know of any positive things? I have to have 3 reasons. God, i hate history. Such a waste of time.

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Isaac Moreno D.

14 years ago

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too much ink is used, i like the original better.
Conserve the white color more dude. Nothing like delta.
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mike

14 years ago

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I've seen ticket redesigns before. This one... yawn.
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Mete

14 years ago

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Did you end up pitching this to Delta? If they don't go with it, at least they know there's someone out there with some good concepts for them.
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josh

14 years ago

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I really like this concept. Easy to read. Nice to look at. I hate looking at a ticket ( flight, baseball game, Concert, Wendy's) and having to stare at it for 3 minutes to get oriented.
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Joel

14 years ago

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I love the look, and think the highlighted items are right on (just went roundtrip on Delta this weekend and had similar issues), but the most obvious difference I notice between the original and the redesign is that the redesigns use much more ink, a cost that probably shouldn't be overlooked...
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Joey

14 years ago

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The font is a disaster there are play tickets from community center are better designed. And that black box may cost some serious ink and print time, Would look good if it's electronic though, but then you can just show the departing terminal on GPS and sync the schedule with google or i calendar. Good initiatives, but design very disappointingly executed.
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Sandjar

14 years ago

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Tyler,
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.
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Shalin

14 years ago

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Hot damn - bravo! Bring some classiness and glamour back to the airport and the skies...somehow! ;)

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
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