New Flying Club designs on VA wesbite

[mitchja]

I guess that explains what FC meant when they told me that 'the renewal packs are in the process of being revamped'

I also think the new design looks pretty good as well

Regards

[preiffer]

Originally posted by mitchja
I also think the new design looks pretty good as well

That said, we ARE the two guys on here that Virgin think are female, James... [:0]

I kind of like it, although I like the original design as well. I guess this is all part of the flying club changes that they started last month.

EDIT: Just had a look see, looks like they are planning a lot of other changes to the website, I grabbed this sneak peak of the new FC menu for the US website. I'm still praying that they will change the rules so that I can join before August!

[buns]

In the words of my "little Britain" hero - Andy Pitkin

"I don't like it"

Perhaps when the rest of the web page is changed to match the little bit they have done.......

Well, there's clearly one thing they need to play with on the re-vamped site. On vaguely looking at the new enhanced mileages, I plugged in LHR-SYD and came up with this:



So it looks like getting to gold will be pretty easy in future, but it'll take a long time to build up enough miles for a reward flight!

Best wishes

David

[preiffer]

Only seems to be on the SYD Upper class. all other classes/destinations SEEM to be correct. [:?]

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by Airbus340
If anyone is interested on this page there are pictures of the new style cards (please correct me if im wrong)
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/tier_points/index.jsp

Err, have they had a marketing intern in recently? I sincerely hope an external agency was not paid exorbitant sums of money for this refresh. There is being trendy and cutting eddge, and then there is making something look cheap.

Thanks,
Richard

[mcmbenjamin]

Do not like the new cards if that is the new design. My TP calc is not correct but had not been since reaching gold.

Will reserve judgement til they are done with the website. I get 404 errors when clicking the new features and I am not even flying the C404 (bad joke).

As im not allowed to be a flying club member I feel left out on this one... What are the new designs? please describe them to me.

I like it. Looks nice and classy.
Maybe it doesn't yet blend well with the existing pages but as a design evolution it looks good.
Wonder if they'll be getting rid of Eurostile as the standard font and changing whatever one that is (its serif-tastic!)

Dean

Originally posted by milehigh
As im not allowed to be a flying club member I feel left out on this one... What are the new designs? please describe them to me.

Check out this link

phil

It's interesting to see the distinctive VS "House Style" being diluted.

If you remember, when the current "silver" livery was unveiled, with the current "house" font, everything was put either into that font - for things like logos, titles, etc., or into one of two other "regular" fonts (for easy readability of paperwork and documentation). This rippled through everything in the VS brand. Even a colour palette was employed (the reds, silvers, and purples).

The fonts and colours seemed to have been carefully selected so that they looked "right" together, and everything seemed to have a flow about it.

Slowly but surely, little tweaks, like changing font or fiddling with logos and branding, keep getting made. For example, Upper Class changed it's font around the same time as the suite, but it looked okay.

The serifed fonts that seem to be used with the new FC image look seriously out of place.

It eventually dilutes the image, and makes things look cluttered, discordant and disorganised.

I'm really surprised that this has happened. Since VS have an internal design team, you'd expect them to know about these things! Either they are bored, disorganised, or there has been an intern let loose!

Good examples of a strong branding from the transport industry are London Underground (gotta love that Johnston font), and, believe it or not, British Rail.

Logos, fonts, sizes, and uses - collectively known as the "Rail Alphabet" - were all tightly controlled and defined in the specification of the BR brand image when it was developed in the 1960s, and seldom changed. Indeed, during Rail Privatisation, there was a big discussion about what to do about the old BR double-arrow logo on the stations. The answer was "leave it", because it's readily associated with trains and stations. Despite privatisation, the white-on-red double-arrow lives on, and remains part of the specification for station signage, and the Rail Alphabet remains specified for all safety related and trackside signage.

If it isn't broken, there's no need to fix it.

Cheers,
Mike

VS do not have an exclusively internal design team. Start Creative Limited has designed much of the post 1999 items. However these changes may be showing that VS is attempting to do their design internally, or maybe they just picked a new team.

Originally posted by mike-smashing

If it isn't broken, there's no need to fix it.

Completely agree with this. I remember when the VS site was overhauled from the its last incarnation, and then it really needed it. Now it just seems to be a fiddle with it for the sake of it, and the way it is being done partially is simply bizarre.

Because of the half-hearted overhaul, there are too many different typefaces, styles and colours, and that means dilution of the brand.

Agree again about the London Underground typeface - one typeface used throughout and that level of consistency really promotes the brand (despite LU's other problems helping ruin the brand, but that's another story).

thanks for the link.... Im not sure on these! They are kind of not Virgin... can I use them in the supermarket?

[Decker]

I'd kind of like to wait for the completed roll out before passing judgement, Whilst I'd personally not incrementally roll out an incomplete website (because it leads to negative comments) there may be reasons we're unaware of. It would be a shame if these were purely political.

I just wish they'd put right the glaring errors surrounding tier points and thirteen month periods! It was all discussed here a couple of weeks ago, but still no sign of putting things right.

I've just checked on VA.com and it's still wrong [:(!]

If it hadn't been for LROM who explained in the aforementioned thread that VA.com is wrong in what it says, I would be none the wiser. I just feel sorry for everyone out there who is going by VA's web site and is relying on a thirteen month period in which to earn their 15 points to move from red to silver! I've just checked and it still says in no uncertain terms As a Flying Club Red member, you need a total of 15 tier points within a rolling 13 month period (e.g. 01 Jan 2005 to 31 Jan 2006) to move up from Red to Silver membership

Even in their example Virgin quote an exact thirteen months, but we know from LROM that this is cobblers and it's only 12!

On a selfish front I'm still holding out for reaching silver, even though the TP's I'll earn to reach the magical 15 will be earned between 12 & 13 months after my last flight! After all, I can only say to Virgin that I'm going by their published rules!

Whats all the fuss, it looks fine to me, I like the new cards too.

change is as good as rest in my book, don't want to end up with a stodgy old established look like erm BA get.

I will wait till its finished.

I like it!