Air Gabon logo
An Air Gabon Douglas DC-6 at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in July 1977.
From Wikipedia:
Air Gabon was the national, state-owned airline of Gabon, operating out of Libreville International Airport to a variety of destinations across Western and Southern Africa, as well as to Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Founded in 1951, the airline went bankrupt in 2006.
The logo uses Antique Olive Nord in italic caps. This choice was very likely made in reference to the Air France logo which was devised by the typeface’s designer, Roger Excoffon. See also a poster for Air France designed by Excoffon in 1961, featuring his Nord in roman and italic caps.
The Air Gabon logo had been in use at least since 1977, when the Compagnie Nationale Air Gabon was established. Ownership in the airline was shared between the Gabonese government (70%) and Sofepag (30%), an Air France-associated company. [Guttery]
Taxi-ing out at JNB is F-ODJG. This aircraft flew its entire life with Air Gabon. The airframe was scrapped at Chalons-Vatry in 2006.
F-ODJG Boeing 747-2Q2BM spotted at London-Gatwick, August 2000.
Close up of a rather tatty, weather-beaten 747-200 before it departed to Libreville.
4 Comments on “Air Gabon logo”
Note that, in addition to the old Air France logo, Royal Air Maroc used Antique Olive Nord as well.
Merci, Soimadou!
Yes, I had mentioned the Air France connection in the post. Didn’t know about Royal Air Maroc! Interesting to see that they opted for an all-lowercase logo. But what happened to the letterforms? The r lost its overshoot, and the counter in o is out of the round.
If typographic quality were related to safety, this sign wouldn’t exactly spark confidence in the airline either. Spotted by Floris van Halm in Essaouira, Morocco:
Photo: Floris van Halm (CC-BY-NC-ND)
Good point Florian, haven’t noticed about the ‘o’ and ‘r’ !
On another note, I’m not sure but the Air Algérie logo seems to use Antique Olive in a regular weight?
This is probably a legacy from colonial years.
The Air Algérie logo looks like a customized version of Antique Olive Nord Italic to me, made somewhat lighter. As far as I know, there is no such style in the typeface family.
Yes, this is an interesting case for (post-)colonial design research.