The flag carrier of the Philippines was established in 1941. Philippine Airlines is a trade name of PAL Holdings, Inc.
Meaning and history
Philippine Airlines was established in 1935 as a Philippine Aerial Taxi Company, and its bright emblem was very detailed and ornate, unlike all the following logos, created for the company after the name change in 1942.
1935 – 1941
The original logo for the company featured a circle outlined in a thick black frame with yellow lettering around its perimeter. Inside the frame, there was an image of a person sitting under the tree and watching a gray and orange plane passing by. It was a slightly amateurish though very colorful image, which stayed with the brand for six years.
1941 – 1947
The company changed its name to Philippine Airlines in 1941, and the new logo was introduced in the same years. It was an abstract red and black badge, with a circular image and a bold diagonally oriented red wing, coming upright.
1947 – 1952
The redesign of 1947 refined the emblem of the company and now its main rounded part featured an image of the globe, while the red wing became wider and shorter, being formed by four wide lines in different lengths.
1952 – 1960
The color palette of the logo was changed to blue, red, and white in 1952. With the oval colored blue, a red four-pointed star, and a bold “PAL” lettering in white and blue, placed over a star. The diagonal wing, formed by four segments, featured a sea blue shade with white separation lines.
1960 – 1968
In 1960 the wing was removed from the Philippine Airlines visual identity, keeping the blue oval with a star and lettering as the main part of the logo. The star was now also colored blue, so the color palette of the emblem got simplified to just two shades — white and blue.
1968 – 1970
The redesign of 1968 introduced a new concept for the company’s visual identity. It was a blue and red emblem, placed in the left from a black traditional inscription, set in all capitals of a classy serif typeface. The emblem featured two overlapping triangles in blue and red, placed on a white background and enclosed in a thin black circular frame.
1970 – 1986
The framing was removed from the Philippine Airlines logo in 1970, and now it boasted two overlapping triangles in a seeker and more intense color palette, and a rewritten wordmark in bold Sans-serif typeface, with only “P” and “A”, capitalized.
1986 – Today
The redesign of 1986 added the yellow rays of the sun to a blue triangle of the Philippine Airlines visual identity. The lettering was also refined and now it features a delicate and smooth italicized Sans-serif typeface, which looks friendly and welcoming, while its black color points to the company’s reliability and expertise.