Interview about Foogo Packaging Design, winner of the A' Packaging Design Award 2025
Foogo is a packaging experience inspired by diverse Korean food truck styles, emphasizing originality and portability. Unlike conventional box packaging, Foogo is designed as an intuitive food truck shape, reflecting the identity of Korean soul food. It incorporates various truck types like caravans, vans, and trailers, capturing Korean street food’s dynamic essence. And detachable handle enhances convenience, while Foogo bridges tradition and modernity, creating an immersive visual experience.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsThe idea for Foogo Packaging Design emerged from a desire to visually and emotionally communicate the warmth and charm of Korean street food culture. Rather than using conventional box packaging, I wanted to encapsulate the experience of buying from a food truck — a dynamic, spontaneous, and deeply human interaction that many Koreans associate with childhood memories. The concept began with nostalgic recollections of lining up at food trucks after school, drawn by the smell of freshly made snacks. I aimed to capture this sensory memory and deliver it through design. During initial ideation, I explored various forms, but the food truck’s iconic silhouette and cultural symbolism stood out. It provided not only a strong visual identity but also allowed me to build a narrative structure into the packaging. By translating the mobility and energy of a food truck into a tangible packaging form, I hoped to create a product that was more than a container — one that carries cultural storytelling.
The choice of multiple vehicle types — caravans, trailers, and vans — was a deliberate strategy to reflect the diversity and richness of Korean soul food. Each type of truck evokes a slightly different street food setting: the cozy intimacy of a trailer parked on a corner, the bustling vibe of a large van during festivals, or the mobile charm of a caravan roaming urban backstreets. These differences helped me assign each truck form to a unique snack within the Foogo lineup. For instance, the compact caravan is used to package the green tea glutinous rice hotteok, a nostalgic and comforting dessert. The van holds the crunchy dalgona snack, associated with a sense of play and energy. The aim was not just to stylize the forms but to ensure that each vehicle’s character metaphorically echoed the sentiment of the food inside. This layering of symbolic vehicle forms with culturally beloved foods added depth and allowed the design to tell a multi-sensory story.
Designing the unboxing experience to mimic a food truck purchase required careful engineering. From the start, I aimed for a playful, interactive reveal — pulling open the side panels like serving windows, unveiling the snack as if receiving it from a vendor. However, these movements had to be structurally sound. Since the packaging used paperboard material, precision in die-cutting and folding became crucial. We tested numerous prototypes to perfect the hinges and handle placement to withstand repeated use without tearing. The biggest challenge was balancing aesthetics with practicality — ensuring the food truck form remained recognizable while providing a secure enclosure for the product. Reinforcement points were added to internal folds, and a locking mechanism was subtly built into the base. This balance allowed us to maintain both storytelling and structural integrity, making the packaging not only beautiful but functional.
Sustainability was a core consideration from the start. I chose eco-friendly paperboard not only for its recyclability but for its tactile resonance with street food culture. Unlike glossy plastics, paperboard evokes the feeling of takeaway boxes, food wrappers, and old-school street food packaging in Korea. This helped create an authentic visual and textural experience. However, using this material came with challenges — it needed to be thick enough to support the structural complexity of the food truck form while remaining light and cost-effective. I sourced FSC-certified boards and worked with manufacturers to test crease durability and print clarity. Furthermore, water-based inks and spot coating techniques were used to enhance specific areas without compromising recyclability. This approach allowed us to stay environmentally responsible while deepening the cultural narrative and emotional engagement of the packaging.
To bridge this gap, I prioritized universality through emotion and specificity through detail. The five snacks selected — green tea glutinous rice hotteok, crunchy dalgona, white milk egg bread, potato hot dog, and sweet potato bungeoppang — are all beloved in Korea and evoke strong childhood memories. But to ensure global accessibility, I highlighted their playful textures, comforting warmth, and nostalgic flavors that transcend language. The visual design avoided overused traditional motifs and instead focused on vibrant street graphics, handwritten-style typography, and warm-toned illustrations that communicate joy and approachability. These elements help international audiences intuitively understand the fun and heartfelt nature of Korean soul food. At the same time, QR codes and interior storytelling panels offer cultural context in both Korean and English, ensuring the authenticity remains intact and inviting.
Street food is inherently mobile — it’s meant to be eaten on the go. I wanted Foogo’s design to capture this essence. The detachable handle was developed after testing how users interacted with the box. We observed that people instinctively grasp the top of a package, especially when it resembles a small object like a toy or lunchbox. By designing a foldable, integrated paperboard handle that locks securely into the top of the box, I created a packaging system that is easy to carry and fun to use. It mimics the act of grabbing a snack from a stall and walking off into the city, allowing users to feel as if they’re part of that vibrant street food scene. The handle is also removable to accommodate display or storage. This feature not only reinforces the narrative of Korean street food’s mobility but adds a tactile layer to the user experience.
Each food item required a different internal structure to protect its form and maintain freshness. Therefore, scaling and dimensional variations were essential. I began by categorizing the snacks based on size, shape, and weight. The bungeoppang and potato hot dog, for instance, needed wider bases and vertical stability, while dalgona, being delicate, required compartmental cushioning. Visually, I scaled the height and width of each vehicle form to maintain consistency across the lineup without making the differences jarring. The silhouettes align when displayed side by side, but the subtle dimensional shifts ensure ergonomic handling and optimal food protection. Aesthetically, I adjusted window placements and panel proportions to balance whitespace and graphics, preserving the toy-like appeal. These deliberate calibrations allowed for a seamless blend of design continuity and functional integrity.
Street food culture in Korea is a balance between rawness and charm — the steam of hot snacks rising against neon signs, the contrast of asphalt streets and shiny wrappers. I wanted the packaging to evoke that tension through texture. By combining matte finishes with selective gloss coatings, I created a surface narrative: matte areas represent the warmth and handmade quality of the food, while gloss accents mimic the bustling city lights and energy of the streets. For instance, the truck windows and logos are finished with gloss to draw attention and simulate condensation, while the rest of the truck body maintains a matte feel for a grounded, earthy impression. These tactile contrasts invite users to not only see but also feel the story. It elevates the packaging from a visual object to a sensory one, deepening engagement.
Having studied automotive form and branding, I’m deeply attuned to how form, proportion, and detail communicate emotion. In designing Foogo, I approached the food truck not just as a box, but as a vehicle with character. I applied automotive design principles — silhouette hierarchy, surface transitions, and functional components — to a packaging context. The result is a form that has realism, charm, and logic. Features like wheel imprints, a stylized grille, and mirror tabs borrow from vehicle detailing, making each box not only representative but also lovable. This design language enables storytelling through shape: each truck feels like a character with its own backstory, matching the food inside. My automotive background allowed me to elevate the packaging beyond novelty, transforming it into a cultural storytelling medium with depth and familiarity.
Foogo demonstrates that packaging can be both a medium of cultural communication and a vehicle of emotional storytelling. As global interest in local cultures grows, I believe more packaging designs will shift toward narrative-driven forms that educate and engage consumers beyond functionality. Foogo’s approach — combining interactivity, character, and cultural nuance — can serve as a model for reinterpreting traditional food experiences in ways that resonate across borders. It shows how design can help reposition humble, everyday snacks as emotionally rich, globally appealing gifts. In the future, I hope to expand Foogo into a series that celebrates diverse cultures and street food stories, inspiring others to view packaging not as a disposable shell, but as a storytelling canvas that connects people through shared memories and values.
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