Interview about Tracing Package Typography, winner of the A' Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Award 2024
Tracing is a unique typography designed specifically for tracing paper packaging. It moves beyond function, becoming a medium for imagination and expression. Embodying minimalism, 'Tracing' combines bold features with delicate touches. The design draws inspiration from various typefaces, showcasing diverse stroke widths. After many versions, a balance between robustness and delicacy was achieved. Every element was carefully crafted, ensuring a cohesive look. Tracing is not just a typeface; it inspires creativity on paper.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsThe idea of balancing boldness and delicacy came from tracing paper itself — a material that feels both fragile and assertive. I wanted the type to mirror that duality. Each stroke was drawn to hold weight and air at once, creating a quiet tension between confidence and restraint. The process felt like tuning two voices until they resonated in harmony.
Tracing paper has always been treated not only as a functional layer, but also a medium for imagination. I wanted to give it an emotional role — a surface that invites reflection and expression. Its translucency suggested openness, and I saw the packaging as a way to frame that state of mind. The design turns an everyday object into a pause, a space for creative thought.
I began by experimenting with many different typefaces and brainstorming variations, pushing each letterform to both extremes — the boldest and the thinnest — to explore how far contrast could go before balance was lost. Through continuous refinement, the forms and proportions were finally restrained to echo the light passing through tracing paper. The breakthrough came when the letterforms started to look transparent — strong yet quiet, like the material they represent.
In Illustrator, I refined glyph proportions to ensure clarity and balance. Photoshop was used to test the typography in real packaging contexts, evaluating contrast and spatial composition.
Tracing was an independent project. Feedback from typography and graphic design professionals helped me evaluate the readability and aesthetics. Their perspectives offered an external lens. This dialogue between function and beauty guided the final refinement of the typeface.
Before shaping the final concept, I spent time recording and comparing typefaces from everyday surroundings — shop signs, posters, and handwritten lettering. Observing how contrast and proportion affected mood helped me refine the visual direction and find the core inspiration for Tracing.
I tested multiple variations under different conditions to find the point where each letter remained bold yet light. Because tracing paper reacts strongly to illumination, small shifts in thickness could change how the type felt. I prepared several versions and gathered feedback from different viewers to understand how they perceived clarity and texture.Through repeated iterations and tests, the design gradually reached its balance — legible, heavy, yet visually consistent with the translucent quality of tracing paper.
Tracing was designed entirely in black and white, so the focus wasn’t on color but on how line and space define form. The composition relies on the Gestalt principle of completion — letting the viewer’s eye fill what’s missing, so the typography feels balanced and complete.
I hope Tracing inspires designers to see packaging typography as a tactile and playful experience — where material and type speak the same language. Typography doesn’t need to stay static; it can become an activity, a process, or even a shared moment between user and object.As packaging expands beyond paper into wood, food, air, and digital layers, the dialogue between form and material will only grow richer. In the future, typography might exist not just on surfaces but within immersive mediums like AR or VR. Tracing reminds us that function and creativity don’t compete — they coexist, and together they shape how design can be both useful and imaginative.
I would encourage designers to approach typography with curiosity and a sense of play. A typeface isn’t just a set of letters — it can be a space, an activity, or a process to explore. When you experiment with form, scale, and rhythm more freely, emotion begins to emerge naturally.Experience will always matter, but it doesn’t need to limit imagination. Treat typography as something alive, responsive to its material and context. The more you let it move, the more meaning it will hold.
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