Cynthia Rowley to Redesign United Uniforms; American Airlines Design Controversy Continues

Starting the week off, the biggest design-y conversations seem to be coming from the airline industry and so that is where we too must head. First comes the news that famous fashion designer and “Project Runway” and “Design Star” familiar, Cynthia Rowley, has been hired by United Airlines to redesign their employee uniforms, of which we’re guessing there will be several dozen varieties, given that the company has over 40,000 employees working in numerous areas. The new outfits, according to the Chicago Tribune, will be unveiled in 2011 (assuming, of course, there’s an airline industry left). Second in airline buzz comes this follow up from a story we posted back in early June, when an anonymous designer from American Airlines got in touch with writer/designer Dustin Curtis about how awful it was trying to get good design ideas through the gigantic company. Following up on the conversation, Curtis has posted news that just after his original post went live, American tracked down who had sent him the anonymous email and fired the designer for disclosing company information. Curtis sees this as yet another example of why the airline just doesn’t get it, whereas others, like Joshua Blankenship, sees the whole thing as “creating controversy for its own sake.”

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