Airline seat design inspiration is evolving away from the automotive look of the 2000s and 2010s, trending more towards other spaces where people spend time instead.
Matt Round is chief creative officer at Tangerine. The London-based design agency has been at the heart of seat designs all the way back to the first fully flat bed for British Airways in the 1990s.
Speaking to Skift, he explains why he believes residential spaces will influence airline interior design: “Our inspiration for the next generation of airline seating is influenced by human behavior, an airline’s brand and culture, and cross-sector insights.
“Our designers are looking beyond aviation, drawing from the worlds of residential and luxury interiors, high-end hotels, and even wellness-focused spaces like luxury spas,” says Round.
For airlines and their designers, it’s a balancing act driven by the two-to-ten-year process from design to fleet-wide completion. They need to ensure that long-term trends are adopted quickly enough that they can get on-wing before they expire, without feeling dated halfway through the rollout.
Ideally, they’ll also allow easier updates through soft products like seat fabrics and customizable trims. Some of the latter will also flow through to premium economy and economy seats.
A Bold New World?
Belinda Mason, designer at Thompson Aero Seating, highlights this need for colors to adapt to trends over decades: “Long term, more traditional natural palettes are popular with tinted blacks, neutrals and mid tones also evident. Earth tones like green and brown are popular, alongside berry colors.
Moving forward these colors will remain with us but the influence of technology will create an interest in bright, electrifying neon colors. Bright pastels, playful and joyful colors like orange and yellow will add interest to the long-term color palette.”
A half-decade of the wellness trend combined with the clean-and-clinical aesthetic (partially driven by the pandemic and its impacts on our collective psyches) is now firmly in the rear-view mirror. Today, there’s a need for the cabin to be a breath of figurative fresh air (even if, in fact, it’s recycled) from an increasingly turbulent world.
As Daniel Baron, managing director of LIFT Aero Design, puts it: “The world needs a collective break.”
Baron expects a push towards braver color palettes in the years ahead: “As a symbol of better times, we will see bolder colors on seats, carpets and curtains, as well as the mixing of larger patterns communicating joy, energy, discovery, culture with sublime textures communicating high quality, coziness, warmth. Mood lighting in both cabin and seats will also play a greater role in shaping the overall onboard experience.”
Mood lighting is an odd beast. Widely customizable LED lighting has been offered for two decades, but while some airlines use it exceptionally well to set the scene and make the experience pleasant for passengers, many others have fallen at the implementation and cabin crew procedures hurdles.
The Rise of ‘Soft Technology’
As a counterpoint prediction, Elliot Koehler, creative director at JPA Design, predicts, “less polarizing colors, such as neutral and calming hues like soft grays and blues, which help reduce stress. Additionally, soft technology will be seamlessly integrated into the cabin, creating a holistic, home-like experience with multi-functional spaces.”
Pleasant tactility, visual and actual three-dimensionality, and a genuine feeling of softness in the hard product are difficult for a variety of certification and durability reasons.
Nonetheless, Koehler foresees “more consideration for neuroaesthetics: calming surfaces that simulate natural textures like wood or stone, soothing color schemes — earthy tones and pastels — and varied tactile experiences to enhance comfort and wellbeing.”
In the third and final report in our mini-series, John Walton examines why airlines risk commoditizing the all-important premium market with cookie-cutter seats.
