James Bowskill is a British Art Director at A.C.O. Tokyo, where he develops brands on-line.

He also collects Japanese packaging, occasionally writes articles for Tokyo's web magazine PingMag, and is a member of London design team Superblue.

With Frying Colors Oct 09 2004

I only found out about the show via a client who wanted me to look at it for inspiraiton for his project, and though being reasonably versed in mid-century design from my days studying furniture design, had never heard of the airline itself.

Looking at the collection of stewardess outfits, newspaper adverts, cabin interiors and flight paraphenalia, it's easy to see what Virgin Atlantic have been trying to replicate in recent years. But the sheer strength and total execution of Emilio Pucci and Alexander Girad's vision far outshines Branson's branding machine.

The lack of English information on the exhibits was made up for most of them being English in the first place, but the "no photography" policy seemed unnecessary. Still, the shop had some nice stuff, in particular my misspelt notebook:

The show is only on for one more day, but a quick Google revealed not only several braniff sites in addition to the one for the exhibition, but a whole category on e-bay for Braniff goods!!

http://www.braniff-expo.com
http://www.braniffpages.com
http://www.braniffinternational.org