I’ve always said that less is more when it comes to airline livery design. The two most recent Korean Air liveries are perfect examples of how to create a sleek and sophisticated airline color scheme with relatively simple design elements:

  • The 2025 Blue and White livery contains just two colors. It features metallic paint (which is stunning in bright sunlight) and curved elements to give it a unique character. At least compared to other Eastern Asian airlines.
  • The 1984 Powder Blue livery consisted of four colors, and was considered to be a bold design for the time. Remember – the mid-1980s was all about neon and bright colors. Not pastels.

Blue and White livery: 2025-present

Korean Air’s new livery (launched on March 11, 2025) was significant. Not because of how complex it was, but because of how simple and monochromatic the overall design had become.

You could almost hear heads exploding worldwide (especially in Korea – and the KLM headquarters in Amsterdam) when the first leaked images of this livery appeared online.

Side profile illustration of a Korean Air Boeing 787-10 in the new livery
The new Korean Air livery looking sharp on my Boeing 787-10 template! RIP to the color red, I guess.
  • The color palette was reduced from four colors to two (blue and white – though if you want to get technical, there are two shades of blue). Red and silver were completely eliminated.
  • The new primary blue color is metallic – a first for Korean Air.
  • The horizontal silver stripe dividing the blue and the white was eliminated.
  • The horizontal division between the blue top and the white bottom remains, but that line is now curved at both ends (down at the nose and up on the tail section). Very similar to the new KLM livery.
  • Instead of the Main titles spelling out “Korean Air”, it’s now just “Korean”.
  • The Taegeuk (Yin Yang) symbol on the vertical stabilizer remains, but has become completely monochromatic.

The titles

An all new (and completely custom) typeface was created for the Korean Air titles. Unlike the previous version, it’s a modern san serif design with no hints of Korean-specific culture.

Korean Air logo new font
The new Korean Air typeface. Simple. Clean. Easy to read from across a busy airport.

Switching from “Korean Air” to “Korean” allowed the designers to increase the size of the titles when applied to the aircraft. Although the space that the titles take up on the fuselage remains the same(ish) as the previous version, the elimination of “Air” makes “Korean” more pronounced.

The color palette

Who cares if red is one of the primary colors of the South Korean flag? Obviously not the designers of the new Korean Air livery. The elimination of red from the color palette was every bit as bold as the elimination of yellow from the new Lufthansa livery IHMO. I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall during the meeting when that decision was made.

New Korean Air livery color palette

There are two main colors for the 2025 Korean Air Blue and White livery: blue and white (duh). There are two different shades of blue though, so it’s technically three colors:

  • Metallic Blue: #53AAE2 (R=83, G=70, B=226)
  • Underbelly / Engines: #FFFFFF (R=255, G=255, B=255)
  • Titles and Logo: #051766 (R=5, G=23, B=102)

Powder Blue livery: 1984-2025

There were two major trends in airline livery design when the Powder Blue Korean Air livery was unveiled on March 1, 1984:

  1. Most airlines were moving towards “Euro White” designs (predominantly white liveries).
  2. Some airlines were just starting to embrace swoopy arcs and curves (as you can see in the Qantas livery and Emirates livery of the time).

The Korean Air designers considered neither of those things and stuck with a modern version of the tried-and-true “cheatline” style. Cheatlines were all the rage in the 1970s and 80s. For the youngsters who may not know: cheatlines consisted of linear stripes running down the length of the fuselage.

Korean Air A220-300 side view
The Korean Air A220-300 with this “modern cheatline” livery is arguably one of the best looking A220’s that has ever flown. Prove me wrong!

This version of the livery was essentially a cheatline style with a modern twist. Instead of thin pinstripes, the horizontal design elements were thick and substantial. It looked a lot like the Qatar Airways livery (which is a compliment), and I consider it to be a beautiful evolution of a very traditional airline livery style at the time.

Korean Air 747-8i side view
If you ask me, this livery looks more at home on my Boeing 747-8i template than it does on smaller narrowbodies.

The titles

The typeface used for the Korean Air titles on the forward section of the fuselage was completely custom. It’s a mix of old-style Korean lettering combined with modern typography standards. It was bold, extremely easy to read, and uniquely Korean.

korean air logo

Even though I appreciate how much time and effort they put into making it a traditionally Korean design element, I think there’s a bit of a mismatch between the old world Korean Air typeface and the modern block elements on the rest of the livery. It’s not bad though.

In comparison, Asiana Airlines (the other South Korean airline) went the easy route and used Helvetica instead.

Going even further, they wasted no opportunity in using the Taegeuk symbol – the same one found on the flag of South Korea – for the “O”.

Korean Air A330-322 side view
Prior to this livery being unveiled, I probably would have wrinkled my nose at the thought of a “powder blue” airline livery. I’m quick to judge, I know.

The titles are very predominantly placed on all aircraft types, which technically classifies them as billboard titles (I guess). Billboard title styles weren’t all that common yet, so they were definitely leading the way (and/or copying the Pan Am livery).

Korean Air Airbus A380 side view
On some aircraft (such as the A380), the titles get really big. It’s still a rather balanced design IMHO, as the tail logo had to increase in size as well.
Side profile illustration of a Korean Air Boeing 777-3B5ER with and without the landing gears deployed over a blank background
The horizontal elements of the livery (I’m looking at you, silver stripe) works well on longer aircraft such as the 777-300ER.

The color palette

To me, the most interesting part about the 1984 Korean Air livery is the color palette. Baby blue and silver weren’t exactly the flag colors of South Korea, but they plowed forward with it anyway. It was an extremely bold (and daring) choice, but over time, these colors defined Korean Air. I would also argue that they helped to define them as the colors of South Korea as a whole as well.

1984 korean air livery colors
Hard to believe that this livery was created way back in 1984. It has aged very well!

There were four main colors for the Korean Air Powder Blue livery (light blue, dark blue, silver, and white). The logo mark contained four colors (red, blue, white, and silver), but only two are unique:

  • Blue: #71CBEB (R=113, G=203, B=235)
  • Underbelly / Engines: #FFFFFF (R=255, G=255, B=255)
  • Titles: #1C4E9D (R=28, G=78, B=157)
  • Silver: #C6C6C6 (R=198, G=198, B=198)
  • Logo Red: #EC172C (R=236, G=23, B=44)
  • Logo Blue #1C4E9D (R=28, G=78, B=157)

One of the most interesting things about this color palette is the fact that they chose not to use the color red anywhere in the base livery design. Red is a predominant color in the South Korean flag, so I admire the restraint it took to leave it out. If it were me, I wouldn’t have been able to resist adding a few red accents here and there.

The biggest problem with this color palette? Most of the aircraft that wore it ended up faded and chalky looking. Powdery even. Pun intended.

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14 Comments

  1. Hey there, two observations:

    Are there not three shades of blue in this livery? It appears that there is a second blue between the fuselage top and the silver strip.

    Also – I’m sure it’s a typo where you mention that “the horizontal design elements are sick and substantial”

    🙂

    1. I guess I’m not seeing the third shade of blue. Isn’t it just the sky blue color (upper half of the aircraft) and the blue in the logo?

      And yes, that is a typo, but technically, it is pretty sick. lol

  2. There’s an error (and extra character) in the hex codes for Blue: #73CBEBF (R=113, G=203, B=235).
    Going by the decimal numbers, the hex codes would be 71CBEB.

    1. Shit. 🙂 Thanks for letting me know – I’ve updated the body text, but I’ll make a note to fix the image later.

    1. It should be. I’ve been having a really bad craving to illustrate an old school Cathay Pacific L-1011 lately. 🙂 It might be a good excuse to just do an entire livery history overview…

  3. Great job, Norebbo)). Can you make templates and drawings of Soviet passenger planes such as the Yak-, Tu-, Il-, An- especially for me?

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