Desgrippes Gobé/Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance create a new airport lounge concept for Air France.
Desgrippes Gobé, Air France’s image and brand management agency since 1999 and designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance reposition the brand far ahead of its time.

This new lounge concept was inaugurated in Tokyo in July 2007 and is the first architectural sign of the new Air France brand signature. It was designed as a prelude to travel, highlighting red as a privilege colour and inviting travellers to take advantage of a respite replete with comfort and consideration.

A unique brand experience
The stated Air France goal was to design a lounge featuring a unique travel experience and reaffirm the brand’s excellence values and French touch: the art of welcoming, know-how and elegance.

A new signature for the Air France brand
Using an interplay of “hidden yet revealed”, Air France introduces the colour red:
a strong and affirmed colour, a symbol of privilege, exception and invitation.
Red unfolds, appears and disappears as clients discover the lounge.
It is a modern, audacious creative choice, deliberately disrupting existing codes, worthy of a great ambassador brand for a certain style of French luxury: the goal is to be embedded in the passenger’s memory, another reason why Air France chooses only the best designers.
It is also the first sign of a new signature designed by Desgrippes Gobé for Air France that shall be progressively integrated in all the brand’s expressions.

A strong welcome and consideration sign
The new lounge concept renews with the notion of privilege: each client is a guest invited into a respectful relationship, free to choose a resting area and use the moment according to his/her desires and needs.

This lounge is a solution that is functional, sensitive and unexpected by travellers.
The strong welcome is portrayed in the armchairs that are designed to be both open and enveloping, thus providing the greatest freedom to travellers: free to work, talk, eat, relax etc.
A new expression of comfort where ergonomy reigns supreme.


A lounge that is a prelude to travel
The red carpet welcomes guests and becomes a counter; the shadow of a blossoming cherry tree unfolds. The atmosphere is fresh, with white tones and light woods: everything points to the sky.
The lounge is a “bubble of well-being” a respite for the client before travelling.

This new Air France lounge combines the affirmation of the brand and the glamour of travel.

The next lounge shall be opened in the autumn in Johannesburg.


Creation Desgrippes Gobé/Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance for Air France
Brand directors: François Caratgé and Alain Doré
Creative Director: Alain Doré
Designer: Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance
Retail Branding Director: Lise Andrault
Consultant: Yseult Dubernet
Contact: Yseult Dubernet: 33 (0)1 44 18 45 29  ydubernet@desgrippes-gobe.com

About Desgrippes Gobé
Founded in Paris in 1971 by Joël Desgrippes, the company expanded internationally when Marc Gobé opened the New York office in 1985. Desgrippes Gobé recognized the importance of a global network and opened offices in Belgium (Brussels) and in Asia (Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai).
Desgrippes Gobé’s reputation was first built on pertinent creations for prestigious brands in the luxury and beauty sector and was soon confirmed with know-how in sectors as diverse as services, industry, fast-moving consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, fashion, leisure activities, banking and insurance, transportation and tourism etc. working with prestigious clients such as: Air France, AOL, Coca-Cola, Fauchon, Club Med, LCL, Boucheron, Neuhaus, Société Générale, Unilever, and many more.
With group sales totaling 31 M$ US and with more than 145 employees throughout the world, Desgrippes Gobé is one of the world’s top 10 branding and design groups. The Desgrippes Gobé network offers services in every brand strategy field with multicultural teams made up of strategy and communication experts that are design, multimedia and architecture specialists.