The COPA board sought to modernize and simplify their visual identity to attract more members and convey their core values of flight education and safety. An agency conducted research including member interviews to understand COPA's purpose and members' characteristics. They developed three logo concepts incorporating a simplified Cirrus aircraft silhouette and safety themes. After iterations, the selected design features a top-down Cirrus shape within a circle representing the community and parachute safety. It was accompanied by branding guidelines to consistently implement the new visual identity across COPA communications.

1. FLIGHT &
SAFETY
Rebranding Cirrus Owners
and Pilots Association

2. 2
The Task
The COPA board sought a modern, memorable and distinctive visual identity system.
Its goal is to support COPA efforts to attract more members, convey core brand values,
stand out from other similar organizations, and have a greater influence on the next
generation of owners and pilots. It had to incorporate the organization’s main thrusts
while simplifying its appearance. The board refined their vision for COPA by also taking a
broad scope as “the place to be for the Cirrus community.”
Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) is a community of owners
and pilots of certified aircraft manufactured by Cirrus Design. With
more than 3000 members worldwide, the association approached
us to refresh their visual identity. Significant organizational changes
coincided with the need of a new brand look.

3. 3
Discovering the Brand
We kicked the project off with a comprehensive study of the COPA organization. We
began by interviewing a selected cross-section of key board members and regular
club members, aiming to define the brand mission, characters and behaviours. They
mentioned Angelina Jolie flies a Cirrus SR22, but unfortunately did not let us interview
her :(
We identified the main characteristics of the COPA members that underpin the ethos of
the brand itself:
• The Maven: Safe, Professional, Authoritative, Intelligent
• The Modern Pilot: Leading, Successful, Adventurous, Empowered
• The Community Activist: Collaborative, Responsive, Vibrant, Engaging
The interviews helped us understand COPA’s primary purpose - promote flight education
and safety. The association provides social activities that attract like-minded people
passionate about flying and Cirrus aircrafts in particular.
4,000 members
around the world
in 52 countries.
COPA is the most
modern aviation
community.

4. 4
The Design
Process
The generated findings allowed us to build a map of concepts,
visual themes, and representations of the community values.
We set the mood and gathered imagery that represented the
brand vision and essence. These also served as inspiration
for the identity itself. The main safety benefit we focused on is
the Cirrus ballistic parachute, the key feature that makes these
aircrafts some of the safest in general aviation.
We then continued with explorations of the aircraft’s silhouette.
Our goal was to find how it could be simplified, yet remain
recognisable and still represent the shape of a Cirrus aircraft.
We experimented with two main perspectives, front and top. We
left the top point of view as the primary one, as we felt it best
represents a Cirrus aircraft and provides better scalability.
During the digitising phase, we continued to evolve our concepts.
We explored additional options that came to mind when working
in a digital environment. There were many different directions.

5. 5
After an internal selection, we presented three initial design
concepts. They provided an opportunity for the COPA members
to review how well they matched their self-image:
Option 1 featured a modern restyled
version of the existing logo. It
incorporates the values of the
organization, while simplifying the mark.
Option 2 was a subtle representation of
flight and safety. We created an abstract
symbol that would support the brand’s
future evolution and expansion.
Option 3 presents a symbol that
illustrates the process from being just an
owner of a Cirrus aircraft to becoming
a pilot. Knowledge and a lot of flying is
what it takes for one to become skilled
and a safe pilot.

6. 6
After discussions with the COPA board of directors and a few
iterations, we refined the concepts into the new COPA visual
identity.
The basic building block comes from a redesigned circular
design. The old logo depicted a propeller plane, such as the
iconic Cirrus SR22. With the introduction of the Cirrus Vision Jet
SF50, the aircraft takes on a different profile and COPA expects
new members who fly the jet. The top-down silhouette shows
a distinctive Cirrus shape that blends the prop and jet aircraft
planforms moving the brand mark into a new level. The circle
represents both the COPA community and the safety of the
parachute.
The palette for design consists of three colours - primary blue
foreground, secondary darker blue background and a call-to-
action fresh green. We used deep blue because of its association
to safety, freedom, trust and the sky.

7. 7
To complete the identity, we also created a background pattern
for use in large applications. An abstract representation of a
bird’s eye view of nature, it reminds of the good times we have
while flying.
Finally, we delivered a detailed brand guideline that enables
COPA to consistently implement their visual assets across
communications and applications.

8. THANK YOU FOR
THE ATTENTION.
www.kickflipx.com
hi@kickflipx.com
Victor Hugo 3, ap. 4b,
1124, Sofia, Bulgaria
“The Kickflip team did a tough job in a
clear, convincing and defensible way.
Greater resistance to the new brand look
was expected, but the thoroughness of the
applied process and the comprehensive
communications really helped.”
Rick Beach, Member of COPA Board of Directors