Alaska Airlines

Seattle creative designer and brand manager

MY ROLE: Creative Strategy Marketing Manager

OVERVIEW: As the lead designer for Alaska Airlines, I am responsible for developing and executing design concepts through the final deliverables for a wide range of in-house and consumer-facing marketing and business initiatives. I also managed the design work of a team of designers within the Brand Studio.

I am responsible for driving creative development and design, while also facilitating the work of designers, photographers, and video editors. I collaborate with campaign managers, product managers and producers to develop new creative approaches to solving business challenges and communicating with creativity and impact.

2021 Pride Plane

I designed the visual elements for Alaska Airlines’ Pride plane, creating a cohesive identity that spanned a hand-painted aircraft livery, in-flight materials, airport signage, and digital marketing channels. The design celebrated inclusivity while staying true to the Alaska brand, incorporating vibrant colors and thoughtful details that translated across physical and digital touchpoints. From concept to execution, I ensured the visual language was bold, joyful, and unified—delivering an impactful experience both in the sky and on the ground.
Read more on my pride plane designs and the beautiful step forward in history here https://blog.alaskaair.com/values/pride-plane/

Photos by Ingrid Barrentine.

Illustrations

These illustrations were created for a multi-platform experience augmentation.

Fly Smart Land Happy Shirts

The Fly Smart Land Happy T-shirt was designed for Alaska employees to wear at events, such as the 2019 SeaFair pictured below. The shirt went through quite a journey. From simple text and branding, all the way to adding my illustrations to bring life to the design. I absolutely love the outcome, the blue colored text on a grey shirt it really pops.

Company Shirts and SWAG

These designs are sold to employees across Alaska’s network and worn by thousands of employees during events, activations,
as well as daily in casual environments.

Social Media

I designed for Alaska Airlines Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram presences. Everything from ads to important updates, I brought to life with my design. Social media is a very important aspect of Alaska, their customer facing outlook means keeping our social very active. We often do 1-3 IG stories a week, plus several posts. Especially during football season when we supported Russel Wilson! My favorite media to create for was the IG stories, especially ones promoting destinations or food! I taught myself how to do simple animations as well, to add more live to my designs.

GoGo Tech Support and Logo

A brief for the GoGo entertainment app and an IT squad as a support resource. I designed several logo mockups and illustrations for a t-shirt for the IT team.

Traffic Box Artwork for SeaTac Airport

Alaska Airlines acquired a building across the street from their corporate headquarters. The city of SeaTac gave us seven traffic boxes to decorate with artwork near the two buildings. I ideated, designed, and finalized assets for the traffic boxes to be wrapped in my art. I am very proud of this artwork, as I had a lot of freedom to illustrate. It’s really cool to be able to drive by these boxes and see my art in person!

Alaska Airlines North Satellite Lounge

Signage for the NSAT Lounge at SeaTac airport. I especially love the dual use coaster/postcard!

New Company Lanyards

CREATIVE REQUEST: There will be a rotating series of Brand Sanctioned lanyards sold at the Company Store.

-Core (similar to existing lanyard but updated to match the new Atlas version with the logo on the upper left)

-Military version: need to see versions from patriotic with flag to more direct Honoring those who serve messaging, maybe a version similar to the livery

-Tropical Green – start with a version of the Atlas one but with the Tropical Green and then do a few versions that push it to more colorful, more pop.

-Other studio recommendations.

Deliverable: Lanyards.

I was the primary designer for this project.

Alaska Enamel Pins and Pin Cards

Ask: Frontline staff want to show their passion, and we’ll be allowing them to show this with pins.

-Committed to Kindness
-Military Support
-Fallen Soldier
-Breast Cancer Awareness
-Be Remarkable
-Pride
-Studio recommended options

Deliverable: Enamel pins.

I was the primary designer for this project.

Sick Sacks

In just a few sentences, what is the request?: Currently our sick sacks are white and get crumbled easily in the seatback. We're ordering a new type of these that don't crumble and come with the ability to customize them. We'd like to bring these up to brand standards within our family of onboard collateral (cups, napkins, etc.)

What mandatory elements need to be included? (ex: logos, taglines, icons, etc.): Highest praise phrase, logo, #iflyalaska

Are there other pieces developed or in progress we should consider for consistent voice & design?: Seatback cards, cups, napkins, sugar, etc.

I was the primary designer for this project.

Company Store Stickers

A fun request to make updated sticks for the company store with various sayings.

I was the primary designer for this project.

Pixar Pier Disneyland Resort Activation

The Ask: Activation elements to support the livery reveal for Disneyland on 10/7

Deliverables: Activation assets and collateral.

Recap/Press Release:

“Hi everyone,

I wanted to share a nice note from Disney about the inaugural flight of our newest Disneyland Aircraft – Friendship & Beyond at Disneyland Resort (N537AS) and a round of applause for our team and all the work that went into this. It’s been over 5 years since we’ve launched a painted Disneyland livery. This was eagerly anticipated by our employees and guests alike.

Our cross-functional team did an amazing job pulling off this entire thing – the aircraft was a massive undertaking (2,800 work hours, 50 gallons of paint, 40 colors), the PR coordination, the event activation at two different airports, coordinating a full flight of Elites, Press, Employees and influencers. The PR coverage to date – nearly 500 million impressions – has been spectacular.  We created many Happy moments landing people in the Happiest Place on Earth.

So many people worked to make this a success and this list is not exhaustive but a few people who really rolled up their sleeves and put in the elbow grease:  Anthony Johnson and everyone at M&E, the team at Victorville, Nicole Dougan, Whitney Ellison, Ingrid Barrentine, SEA & SFO Stations, Katie D’Amato, Ray Lane, Bobbie Eagan, Jonny Mack and the entire Studio team, Ian Bremner, our fabulous Pilots (one was a former Disney Tour guide!) and FAs.

Thank you to everyone for making this happen!

Natalie Bowman - VP of Marketing Alaska Airlines”

Holiday 2019

Aurora Fare Sale

Problem:

Promote flights to Alaska during winter when flights are low.

Action

During a training exercise the VP of Marketing asked each team to come up with solutions on how to fill flights on failing routes. We were allowed to choose which struggling routes to promote. I chose Fairbanks and Anchorage, much to the dismay of my team mates! "Who would want to travel to flat snow and ice in the winter?" Well, those wanting to see the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights! I was amazed, the VP took this simple exercise to heart, and decided to build and entire campaign to support the routes in Jan 2020.

Solution

With the help of the Marketing and Analytics teams, they briefed in the assets needed to support a large campaign. We would run ads, partner with the Alaska Geologic Society to get in depth knowledge of the Aurora index (the nights it was the brightest) and create corresponding discounts on flights when the lights were at their fullest. It was a huge success, and flights saw a dramatic increase Jan 2020 to Alaska. I was thrilled!

The promotion was a huge success. Business to Anchorage went up far beyond what the SEA to ANC route had seen historically during those times. I was recognized by Elliot Pesut | elliot.pesut@alaskaair.com for this success.

Deliverables: Activation collateral, display SWAG, social media, video and misc assets.

First Flight Pin Collateral Design

Alaska Airlines introduces many new routes a year. To celebrate, I was asked to make customized chocolate wrappers, pins, and banners for the first flight send-off.

I was the primary designer for this project.