United Airlines
Brand Campaigns: Art Direction, Digital, Interactive Utility, OOH
When United joined forces with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the easy move was a logo lockup. The better one was giving fans a reason to look up, and a way to look it up. I art directed work that turned the partnership into utility, wit and airport-scale theater, alongside brand campaigns that sold the joy of leaving town.
United’s Star Wars-themed Boeing 737 was already in the sky. We partnered with FlightAware to make it findable: a custom X-wing icon replaced the standard plane on the live flight map, turning one aircraft into a collectible sighting. The partnership became a utility, and checking a flight became fandom.
Star Wars Flight Tracker: the live flight map on a phone, an orange X-wing marking the plane.
X-wing icon design: the custom plane marker at full size and at map scale.
Flight Tracker in situ: FlightAware on desktop and mobile, the X-wing crossing the live map.
Digital banners drove fans to the tracker in the saga’s own register: find it, even in a place far, far away. Small spaces, borrowed voice, real click-through purpose.
Mobile banner grid: nine phone executions, every headline ending in “Track United’s Star Wars Plane.”
Banner ads: “Find it. Even in a place far, far away.” and “Spoiler alert: it takes off and lands.”
Leaderboard and rectangle banners: “Follow the epic journey in real time.” Hyperspace not included.
Airport-scale OOH pairs the galaxy’s biggest characters with the airline’s real product truths: Rey carries the hero’s journey, C-3PO is left speechless by Polaris, the Millennium Falcon envies Economy Plus legroom and the droids finally settle the armrest debate. Borrowed equity works hardest when it sells something true.
Airport billboard, Rey with lightsaber: “Be the hero of your own journey.”
Airport billboard, X-wing: “Far, far away isn’t really so far.”
Polaris billboard, C-3PO: “It will leave you speechless, too.” Business class redefined.
Economy Plus billboard, Millennium Falcon: “There’s no need to go to space just to find some.”
Airport posters, R2-D2 and BB-8: stowed electronics, and “The armrest is all yours.”
A separate outdoor, digital and social push with one job: make cold-weather cities ache for somewhere warmer. This fall, choose spring. Lack Frost. There’s only so much warmth you can get from family. Headline-first craft that lets the line do the flying.
Better Weather billboard: swimmers charge the surf, “This fall, choose spring.”
Better Weather billboard: a beach hammock at sunset, “Lack Frost.”
Better Weather billboard: a swing over tropical water, “Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.”
Bus-shelter poster: an island boardwalk, “There’s only so much warmth you can get from family.”
Taxi tops that diagnose a case of jet brag, and LinkNYC kiosks that put the four corners of the world just around the corner.
Taxi top: “Suffer from jet brag.” Fly to more than 350 destinations worldwide.
LinkNYC kiosk: “The four corners of the world. Just around the corner.” Fly United out of Newark.
Husani Barnwell art directed integrated brand work for United Airlines spanning the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker partnership (a custom FlightAware flight tracker, digital media and character-driven airport out-of-home) and the Better Weather outdoor series. One brand voice, carried from a live flight map to the streets of cold-weather cities.