In 1997 British Airways (BA) adopted a new livery. One part of this was a newly stylised version of the British Airways "Speedbird" logo, the "Speedmarque", but the major change was the introduction of tail-fin art. Also known as the Utopia, World Tails and world image tailfins, they used art and designs from international artists and other sources to represent communities in countries served by BA's route network. The signature of the artist was carried near the design on the tail.
The new corporate logo was created by the London-based design agency Newell & Sorrell, who also oversaw the implementation of the tailfin designs.
The German designs refer to the BA subsidiary Deutsche BA, the French designs refer to the BA subsidiary Air Liberté, and the Australian designs refer to BA's alliance with Qantas.