The rumors have been floating around about this one for quite a while, so it was more a question of when rather than if. Well, it’s finally been announced and, pending legalities, Continental is becoming part of United. Mergers happen, things change and life goes on. It’s almost inevitable in the current state of the airline industry. Assuming the Icelandic volcanoes stay quiet, I’ll be flying with both of these carriers on my upcoming trip (Continental for both outbound and one of the return, but United for the EWR – SFO part of my return).

This is an issue close to me. I work in airport technology and have worked closely with both airlines in the past. I also have friends working for both airlines and their respective regional partners (ExpressJet and SkyWest). I’m hopeful for all of them, but there’s still that doubt.

As for all the hope, there’s one thing that stands out as bad from the outset and that’s branding. They have decided to keep Continental’s livery, which is pretty nice and Continental’s logotype, with the word United in place of Continental. The results are disappointing to say the least. For all the love I have for Continental, their branding doesn’t feature. United’s logotype is much stronger, even without the tulip/U mark. Even taking elements of both would be much better. If they’re going for color reduction, make it all blue, just ditch the stacked right justified serif font. It works to an extent with the words ‘Continental Airlines’, because ‘Continental’ is a larger word, but with the smaller ‘United’ on top, it just looks wrong.

Now, I’m a sucker for sans-serif in general, but I can appreciate strong branding with serif fonts too – US Airways for example. Even the old United branding with the small caps serif font was better (even if the dark grey livery is terrible). Maybe it’s the title case, maybe it’s the positioning, maybe it’s the typeface. All these things are possible, but it seems somehow lazy, almost as if the designer had the original Illustrator file to hand and just replaced the airline name without doing anything else. It also seems somewhat anachronistic. It won’t be able to stand the test of time, because it has failed to do so from the start.

The new airline needs a strong identity and, frankly, this is not it.

I mentioned a while back that I’d post a review of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, but I felt I should probably wait until it had finished its run and I’d seen all the episodes. Well, I saw the last episode a few days ago and it’s time to have my say. Firstly, though, to clarify something. I’ve been asked why I don’t like Jamie. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He’s incredibly passionate about what he’s doing and that’s an amazing thing. He’s also a likable guy. My issue is not with him, but with the “common knowledge” we’ve been led to believe and that he’s spreading – that saturated fat is bad for us and that we should stop eating it. If only he could get past this roadblock, then we could really start seeing results.

The biggest thing I took away from this show (and other related research) is that the USDA guidelines and supplied foods are total and utter crap. Our kids are being force-fed this grain filled trash all week long. Should anyone try to deviate from this and feed some real food, then they had better add some extra bread lest they fall short of the ridiculously huge grain allotment. This exact scenario happened at one point. Jamie was feeding the kids with his new menu and had to add some rolls just to be compliant with the guidelines. I could see the disgust and disbelief in his face when he was told this. The huge amounts of processed foods are also pretty scary, especially since he discovered that the same supplier can also supply fresh food just as easily.

He’s certainly had an impact, and has made people start thinking and talking about this and that’s fantastic. I’m just worried it’s going to get derailed by focussing on the easy scapegoat that is fat.

I think I’ve finally figured out how to use the various sites and services to which I subscribe. Links go over on Posterous, daily statistic updates go on Tumblr and random nonsense goes on Twitter. I just need to remember not to go too crazy on duplication of information. Over the next while, I’ll do something about unifying the design of my various presences, but for now, the content will all end up here somehow.