I always pick up little candies or treats from Japanese, Korean, Chinese stores. What is it with their packaging? I think not only are they using materials that surpass American sweets, but it has a lot to do with their typography. Because countries that rely on a more block symbols as letterforms, their kerning and overall typography treatment is impactful and beautiful at the same time. Hoefler & Frere-Jones has written this article about The World's Most Perfect Script. Now that is a bold statement! Here is what they had to say:
Typographically, the Republic of Korea has much to celebrate. The world’s first typefaces cast in metal were made in Korea: a fourteenth century book in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris establishes Korean printing from movable type at least as far back as 1377, though Korean typefounding may date to 1234, some 221 years before Gutenberg. An impediment to early printing was the complexity of Chinese characters, then used to render the Korean language, which further stifled national literacy. But in 1446, an undertaking by King Sejong the Great addressed both problems, through what is surely one of the greatest inventions in the history of typography: the Hangul alphabet. On October 9, Korea celebrates this incredible innovation as Korean Alphabet Day, better known as Hangul Day.
I always pick up little candies or treats from Japanese, Korean, Chinese stores. What is it with their packaging? I think not only are they using materials that surpass American sweets, but it has a lot to do with their typography. Because countries that rely on a more block symbols as letterforms, their kerning and overall typography treatment is impactful and beautiful at the same time. Hoefler & Frere-Jones has written this article about The World's Most Perfect Script. Now that is a bold statement! Here is what they had to say: 
