Commercial aviation is in a state of slow-motion reinvention. New aircraft are entering service. Cabins are getting refreshed. Airlines are chasing innovation, sustainability and loyalty. And yet, the experience still feels disjointed, held back by aging fleets, disconnected systems and upgrades that change appearances more than outcomes.
The problem is not a lack of vision, it is fragmentation. Different players are solving individual problems, but the journey still falls apart at the seams. Enter Teague.
Known for designing everything from next-generation aircraft and rail cabins to human systems for spaceflight and connected platforms for autonomous mobility, Teague is an agency that brings specialised, cross-industry expertise to aviation’s most ambitious and complex design challenges. The studio’s work across industries sharpens its ability to connect complex systems, giving airlines and OEMs solutions that meet modern passenger expectations.
Designing the invisible seams
“We love designing the next shiny object as much as anyone else, but we’re more interested in the places where innovation falls flat,” says Trevis Kurz, Senior Creative Director at Teague. “That is where Teague works best, at the invisible seams where products, platforms and people connect, and where aviation’s toughest problems still go unsolved.”
For every leap in materials innovation or connectivity, there is often a quiet failure in implementation. A branded app hands off to a legacy check-in kiosk. A beautifully designed seat pairs with a dated control interface. An in-flight system looks smart but runs slow. In isolation these issues seem minor, but together they create friction for crew, passengers and operators alike.
One of the biggest challenges in aviation design is that no one owns the whole journey. OEMs focus on aircraft, airlines on experience, suppliers on components. As we’ve highlighted recently, design often happens in silos with little visibility into how decisions upstream affect experiences downstream. Teague steps into those in-between zones not to take over, but to connect.
“A lot of what we do is behind the scenes. There’s a beauty in that. We get to work between airline departments, supplier boundaries and disconnected moments in the passenger journey. These gaps are rarely anyone’s job to solve, but they make all the difference. Our role is to step into that ambiguity and design the connective tissue.”
Trevis Kurz, Senior Creative Director at Teague
Sometimes it is a tactical fix, like a smarter layout, a clearer prompt or a tighter handoff. Other times it is strategic, aligning products, systems and teams in an organisation. Either way, it is the invisible work that makes the experience feel whole. “Prototyping aligns physical and digital touchpoints before build,” Kurz notes, “reducing risk while ensuring passengers and crews get systems that work from day one.”
Integration as advantage
As the aviation industry faces mounting pressure from environmental mandates, regulatory changes and rising passenger expectations, the path to differentiation is changing. “It is no longer about being first with a new seat or fastest with the next-gen IFE,” says Kurz. “It is about designing what no one owns yet everyone depends on.”
Teague has a track record of preparing the industry for challenges before they become regulation. Its work on integrating accessibility into aviation is a case in point. Long before mandates arrive, Teague has been exploring how to align digital systems, physical experiences and service models across multiple stakeholders. “That kind of foresight doesn’t just meet future compliance,” Kurz explains. “It ensures a consistently intuitive, friction-free journey for every passenger.”
The studio also combines foresight and research with prototyping to help partners understand what is possible. Projects like its 2050 sustainability study set long-term strategies that allow airlines to plan decades ahead. At the same time, physical and digital mock-ups allow future experiences to be tested in real time before full-scale investment. For Intel, Teague built full-scale vehicle mock-ups alongside digital interface simulations to trial autonomous rideshare interactions in a controlled environment. The same approach applies to aviation, where airlines and OEMs can walk through tomorrow’s products today and make decisions with confidence.
From modular cabin architectures on the 777X to passenger insights shaping airport transformation at Vancouver International, Teague’s work shows how integration can become an advantage. The ability to bridge systems, connect products and align stakeholders is not just a design capability, it is a strategic one.
Building tomorrow’s passenger journey
Alongside its aviation work, Teague partners with leaders in AI, robotics and autonomy, translating emerging technologies into experiences people can actually use. That technical fluency, matched by hands-on prototyping, ensures that the ideas do not stay on paper. They can be built, tested and scaled, reducing risk while maximising value for passengers and operators alike.
Commercial aviation may be its most visible arena, but Teague’s value comes from everything it has learned beyond it. In a fragmented industry where no one owns the entire journey, Teague’s role is to design the connections that make it whole. Sometimes visible, often invisible, but always essential.
For airline executives, airport leaders and OEMs, the question is no longer just what the next cabin or platform will look like. It is how all the systems around it will function together. That is where differentiation lives. Teague’s work proves that the future of passenger experience will not be decided by a single seat, screen or service, but by how seamlessly those elements connect.
As aviation moves into its next era, Teague’s challenge to the industry is clear: design the seams as carefully as the surfaces, because that is where the journey succeeds or fails.
teague.com
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