ABOUT

Early in my tenure at TBWA\ZEENAH in Muscat, Oman, the agency was asked to pitch proposals for a new identity for Oman Air, the national carrier. The brief had arrived from the highest of places and all the corporate houses of the Sultanate – and their respective agencies – were vying for the considerable honour of authoring the new identity. Three months after what had been a truly gargantuan effort from the whole department, I was asked in a very hush-hush manner to submit a work file of one of my proposals (not my top pick, incidentally.) The next time I saw that design was another three months down the road on the tail of an Airbus A330 at Muscat airport. The hand-lettered wordmark, its adaptation in Arabic (which I still take huge pride in) and the aircraft livery I had proposed had not made the cut, unfortunately. Only the symbol of incense smoke morphing into wings had been utilized. No complaints, mind – it’s great to see one of your own fly this high.