Thank you, our Dokkaebi

Overview

The F-4 Phantom served 55 years guarding Korean airspace before retiring with honours. The goods made to mark it were given out at the media day, the retirement ceremony and other events – in a friendly, childlike style so every generation could remember it together.

Notes on the work

Reporting inside an organisation demands clarity and persuasion – and a design review in the military meant talking with non-designers, being perfectly clear, and still thinking creatively. It taught me that design isn't only a visual result but a tool for solving problems, made through collaboration and communication.

In the F-4 Phantom retirement task force run by the Ministry of National Defense, I redrew the Phantom's symbol, the dokkaebi, in a Korean painting style and turned it into goods. To persuade decision-makers who weren't designers, I made the evidence visible: generating dozens of options with AI tools and laying them side by side turned a matter of taste into a matter of choice.

The retirement

The F-4 finished its 55 years with a farewell flight in May 2024: four Phantoms and two KF-21 Boramae, South Korea's next fighter, flying three hours over the Gyeonggi, Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces. The official ceremony followed on 7 June. The flight was carried abroad too – Aeroflap, 13 May 2024.

These goods were made for that occasion: an aircraft that had guarded Korean skies since the mid-1960s, some 220 of them, redrawn as a friendly goblin so every generation could remember the same thing.

The YouTube series “Finding the Phantom”, which I co-planned, reached 400,000 views – three times the earlier series – and the team received the Air Force's 2024 “People Who Made the Air Force Shine” group award.