In designing the new business and economy class cabins for Korean Air, PriestmanGoode has done superlative work — and now we have further details and design backgrounders on the new passenger experience.
In the Prestige Class business suites, the brown (or, as your author then called it, “BROWN”) aesthetic initially broke cover earlier this year on the Boeing 787-10. The hard product is, as suspected, Collins’ Horizon, in a version that looks to straddle the line between mini-suite and maxi-suite.
Indeed, there are three separate heights to the front/rear shroud, the door and the door socket elements of the seat surround. Designers PriestmanGoode measure the product at 51 inches, although Korean’s website quotes 52 inches — presumably measuring at different points.
Interestingly, the new images also include an innovative and welcome improvement for the “honeymoon” centre seat pairs, with some sort of double mattress/mattress pad arrangement that goes over the divider, really enabling a cuddle-class experience — above the waist at least, unless the footwell divider also retracts.
The product and its new associated brand elements were developed starting in 2018 in collaboration with PriestmanGoode, with director Daniel MacInnes calling it “a new contemporary vision of Korean identity which is a timeless product but firmly recognisable for Korean nationals and interesting for the airline’s global customer base.”
PG explains that their designers used three key themes of colour, pattern and form with “rich textures, brushed finishes and pressed fabric patterns”, featuring three custom patterns designed by their in-house colour, materials and finish team.
The first is applied across curtains and foils, with “inspiration from jogakbo patchwork craft, featuring geometric shapes and structured designs in a modern repeating motif”, while the second is interpreted within the embroidered stitching, featuring linear structures also inspired by jogakbo.
The third pattern is even more striking in its implementation, bringing warm reds, indigos and taupes into an uncharacteristically vibrant seat fabric for economy. This pattern was first unveiled with some more starkly-lit photos back in 2022 aboard the airline’s A321neo, where it didn’t really seem to fit in with the rest of the brand equity, but in the soft warm lighting of the latest set of photos it’s starting to grow on your author.
PG also mentions almost in passing that this new economy and business class will flow onto the 787-9, which would be a pleasing improvement in both cases.
Perhaps surprisingly, Korean’s 787-10 remains a two-class aircraft, with the airline not adding a premium economy cabin. With its economy class pitched at 32”, there’s a bit more legroom than average but the “comfort canyon” between this tight Dreamliner 3-3-3 coach and the increasingly sumptuous and spacious suites up front has widened, and indeed is one of the world’s widest.
It may well be that the airline has enough on its plate at the moment with its integration of former hometown rival Asiana, and adding a premium economy cabin can be done as simply as pulling out a few rows of economy seats and replacing them with premium economy, with soft product upgrades around the margins. It will certainly be interesting to see whether there are any hidden provisions within the new aircraft that would make a premium economy introduction easier.
Corporate focus may also be why these new disparate brand elements — many of which are truly excellent, like the impressive textured effect on the walls around what is presumably the doors 2 boarding space — have yet to be incorporated into a larger brand evolution away from what Taylor Swift might call Korean Air’s “Turquoise Era” of the mid-2000s to mid-2020s.
The design elements in both the business and economy classes are truly super, with real rationale and a developed, textured and rich aesthetic. Yet it feels like there is still some sort of branding or aesthetic thread missing between the two strongly designed classes we’ve seen so far.
Presumably, the Korean-Asiana merger will demand new combined airport and lounge facilities at Seoul Incheon, which will also need to be designed and created, alongside some wider “welcome to the new Korean Air” type of brand effort.
Perhaps there is more to be done here as the new combined Korean-Asiana finds its new identity — to continue the fabric art metaphor via saeksilnubi quilting, are there some structural hanji cords that can help to demonstrate the wider pattern of the new Korean Air as a whole?
- Recategorising business suites into the mini-suite and maxi-suite
- Korean Air goes deep brown with staggered business Prestige Suites 2.0
- Korean Air’s A321neo cabins: fine, but where is the brand equity?
- An excellent Korean economy experience, broken by a seat
- Why Korean Air garners kudos for its Boeing 777 layout
All images credited to PriestmanGoode