Insight
A Snack Package Observation Log
If you are a designer, this will probably resonate with you. Do you not often find yourself closely examining design in related fields wherever you go? Font designers look at shop signs on the street, UX designers analyze app structures while browsing shopping malls, and interior designers instinctively check ceiling finishes in cafés. I am particularly interested in printed materials, so I tend to study package design closely. Today, I would like to share some interesting points I observed in snack packaging.
Observation Point 1: It looks delicious at a glance
Snacks that have been on the market for a long time are already familiar to us, so they can be easily recognized at a glance by their colors or specific shapes. New products, however, require customers to read the text first in order to understand what they are. In this sense, lettering plays a crucial role in snack packaging. With this in mind, I looked through convenience store shelves and noticed products that captured their characteristics well through lettering. Let me briefly list a few examples.
Taste
First is a case of visualizing taste. The lightning-bolt shape and the spiky, bristling form seem to express the sharp sourness of Aisher. A is the original Aisher package, and B is a package that applies the trademark style of MyGummy as a reference. What do you think? Which design, A or B, makes your mouth water more?
Form
Take a close look at the trademark of Kobuk Chip. Which one do you think is the real Kobuk Chip among A, B, and C? 
The correct answer is B. It is an answer that can be inferred from the shape of the snack itself. This is a case that reflects the product’s physical characteristics by applying the thick, puffed shape of the chip to the trademark. Kobuk Chip is said to be shaped after a turtle’s shell. Combined with the turtle-shell-shaped snack, the turtle character, and lettering that incorporates these features, the product’s characteristics are well expressed.
Ingredient
Lastly, this is a case where the main ingredient of the snack is expressed through the trademark lettering. In Honey Twists, the flowing property of honey is reflected in the final consonant ‘ㄹ’ of the character ‘꿀.’ In addition to the trademark, honey expressions are placed on all corners of the package except the upper left. Even the cute bee icon above the trademark strongly emphasizes honey, the product’s key characteristic.
Let us look at one more example. Kkotgetang also applies elements of its main ingredient, blue crab, to its trademark. The initial stroke of the consonant ‘ㄲ’ in ‘꽃’ resembles a claw, while the starting and ending strokes of the final consonant ‘ㅊ’ appear to form the eyes of a crab. The glossy effect applied across the trademark may be intended to express the smoothness of a shell.
Observation Point 2: Shaped by the passage of time
We have looked at packages from the perspectives of taste, form, and ingredient. It became clear that many brands actively use lettering to better convey product characteristics. Let me now move on to the second interesting point. As times change, products in the confectionery market also shift their positioning, and I examined how these changes are reflected in trademarks and fonts.
Looking at the Castard package at the time of its release in 1989, you can see decorative trademarks along with ornate plates and floral ornaments. The elaborate serifs in the lettering and the small script-style English font below reflect a premium positioning.
In the redesigned Castard from 2020, the overall impression feels much more friendly. The most noticeable change is the rounded trademark. In line with this, the sub-copy font also appears to adopt a casual style. Whereas the earlier Castard conveyed the image of a high-end dessert enjoyed with tea or coffee, do you sense that today’s Castard has shifted to the position of a familiar snack eaten with milk?
Next, I observed the package design changes when the original Orion Digestive was rebranded as Dr. You Digestive in 2012. The most noticeable change is the way the product name is written. As it shifted from a Korean-centered, familiar notation to an English-centered design, it gained a more refined and exotic feel. The lettering changed from straight, rigid forms to a flowing script style, seemingly to move away from its former rough image. The depiction of wheat also changed from realistic photography to illustration, making it feel more casual.
Looking at the current Digestive, there are no major changes from Dr. You Digestive, but an additional label in the upper left emphasizes whole wheat. To reflect the crisp and coarse texture of whole wheat, the trademark appears to have added texture and adopted more angular forms. Through the lettering applied to the packaging, we can read how the message each product wants to convey changes with the times.
Observation Point 3: On the way to becoming a classic
While some snacks actively reflect changing times through lettering, as in the examples above, others firmly maintain their existing style. These are often products that have reached classic status and seek to preserve their authenticity.
Looking at the evolution of Saewookkang, there are elements that are always retained even as the package changes. These are the color, the images of the snack and shrimp, and the trademark. While the color has varied relatively widely from red to orange, and the snack and shrimp images have changed each time, the impression of the trademark lettering has remained consistent since 1989 and continues to be used today. This shows how lettering functions as a key element in expressing a product’s heritage.
Ways to express uniqueness
Today, I talked about how fonts and lettering influence our everyday lives, particularly their role in the confectionery market. They are elements capable of delicately capturing a product’s unique characteristics and play an important role in defining the product itself. While it may be difficult to say that lettering is the most important element in packaging, it can certainly be described as a differentiating factor that sparks curiosity in a market flooded with products.
Unlike font design, where thousands of characters are created with both function and aesthetics in mind, product lettering symbolizes a message with just a few characters. I hope this observation log offers an opportunity to view the letters we often pass by without noticing from a new perspective. That concludes today’s observation log. I am preparing the next one with care, so please look forward to it. See you again.
Insight
A Snack Package Observation Log
If you are a designer, this will probably resonate with you. Do you not often find yourself closely examining design in related fields wherever you go? Font designers look at shop signs on the street, UX designers analyze app structures while browsing shopping malls, and interior designers instinctively check ceiling finishes in cafés. I am particularly interested in printed materials, so I tend to study package design closely. Today, I would like to share some interesting points I observed in snack packaging.
Observation Point 1: It looks delicious at a glance
Snacks that have been on the market for a long time are already familiar to us, so they can be easily recognized at a glance by their colors or specific shapes. New products, however, require customers to read the text first in order to understand what they are. In this sense, lettering plays a crucial role in snack packaging. With this in mind, I looked through convenience store shelves and noticed products that captured their characteristics well through lettering. Let me briefly list a few examples.
Taste
First is a case of visualizing taste. The lightning-bolt shape and the spiky, bristling form seem to express the sharp sourness of Aisher. A is the original Aisher package, and B is a package that applies the trademark style of MyGummy as a reference. What do you think? Which design, A or B, makes your mouth water more?
Form
Take a close look at the trademark of Kobuk Chip. Which one do you think is the real Kobuk Chip among A, B, and C?
The correct answer is B. It is an answer that can be inferred from the shape of the snack itself. This is a case that reflects the product’s physical characteristics by applying the thick, puffed shape of the chip to the trademark. Kobuk Chip is said to be shaped after a turtle’s shell. Combined with the turtle-shell-shaped snack, the turtle character, and lettering that incorporates these features, the product’s characteristics are well expressed.
Ingredient
Lastly, this is a case where the main ingredient of the snack is expressed through the trademark lettering. In Honey Twists, the flowing property of honey is reflected in the final consonant ‘ㄹ’ of the character ‘꿀.’ In addition to the trademark, honey expressions are placed on all corners of the package except the upper left. Even the cute bee icon above the trademark strongly emphasizes honey, the product’s key characteristic.
Let us look at one more example. Kkotgetang also applies elements of its main ingredient, blue crab, to its trademark. The initial stroke of the consonant ‘ㄲ’ in ‘꽃’ resembles a claw, while the starting and ending strokes of the final consonant ‘ㅊ’ appear to form the eyes of a crab. The glossy effect applied across the trademark may be intended to express the smoothness of a shell.
Observation Point 2: Shaped by the passage of time
We have looked at packages from the perspectives of taste, form, and ingredient. It became clear that many brands actively use lettering to better convey product characteristics. Let me now move on to the second interesting point. As times change, products in the confectionery market also shift their positioning, and I examined how these changes are reflected in trademarks and fonts.
Looking at the Castard package at the time of its release in 1989, you can see decorative trademarks along with ornate plates and floral ornaments. The elaborate serifs in the lettering and the small script-style English font below reflect a premium positioning.
In the redesigned Castard from 2020, the overall impression feels much more friendly. The most noticeable change is the rounded trademark. In line with this, the sub-copy font also appears to adopt a casual style. Whereas the earlier Castard conveyed the image of a high-end dessert enjoyed with tea or coffee, do you sense that today’s Castard has shifted to the position of a familiar snack eaten with milk?
Next, I observed the package design changes when the original Orion Digestive was rebranded as Dr. You Digestive in 2012. The most noticeable change is the way the product name is written. As it shifted from a Korean-centered, familiar notation to an English-centered design, it gained a more refined and exotic feel. The lettering changed from straight, rigid forms to a flowing script style, seemingly to move away from its former rough image. The depiction of wheat also changed from realistic photography to illustration, making it feel more casual.
Looking at the current Digestive, there are no major changes from Dr. You Digestive, but an additional label in the upper left emphasizes whole wheat. To reflect the crisp and coarse texture of whole wheat, the trademark appears to have added texture and adopted more angular forms. Through the lettering applied to the packaging, we can read how the message each product wants to convey changes with the times.
Observation Point 3: On the way to becoming a classic
While some snacks actively reflect changing times through lettering, as in the examples above, others firmly maintain their existing style. These are often products that have reached classic status and seek to preserve their authenticity.
Looking at the evolution of Saewookkang, there are elements that are always retained even as the package changes. These are the color, the images of the snack and shrimp, and the trademark. While the color has varied relatively widely from red to orange, and the snack and shrimp images have changed each time, the impression of the trademark lettering has remained consistent since 1989 and continues to be used today. This shows how lettering functions as a key element in expressing a product’s heritage.
Ways to express uniqueness
Today, I talked about how fonts and lettering influence our everyday lives, particularly their role in the confectionery market. They are elements capable of delicately capturing a product’s unique characteristics and play an important role in defining the product itself. While it may be difficult to say that lettering is the most important element in packaging, it can certainly be described as a differentiating factor that sparks curiosity in a market flooded with products.
Unlike font design, where thousands of characters are created with both function and aesthetics in mind, product lettering symbolizes a message with just a few characters. I hope this observation log offers an opportunity to view the letters we often pass by without noticing from a new perspective. That concludes today’s observation log. I am preparing the next one with care, so please look forward to it. See you again.