Typophile - Typography on the cigarette boxes - Comments

OK. Now that we’ve

ben_archer — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 14:07:00 -0800

OK. Now that we’ve mentioned ’Thank You For Smoking’ and Raymond Loewy’s Lucky Strike pack in the same breath, it’s time for

Take a look at Herb

mlvr — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:15:37 -0800

Take a look at Herb Lubalin’s work for EVE:

http://www.misty120s.com/Ad_archive/albums/SmokePretty/Eve71_1.jpg

double oups! I didn’t

lore — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 11:57:40 -0800

double oups! I didn’t check the link and the film title is wrong on my post. Thanks!

I agree re Lucky Strike,

pattyfab — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:10:20 -0800

I agree re Lucky Strike, it’s perfect.

Lorenza, the link to the titles for Thank You for Smoking is in this thread - Thierry’s post near the top.

The book I designed contained a chapter called the Anti-Packs which had, among other brands, Death, Cancer, Brand X and one just called ?.

Lucky Strike by Raymond

lore — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:04:31 -0800

Lucky Strike by Raymond Loewy is a classic.
Satya, there’s a recent film called “Thank you for not Smoking” (check on wikipedia) which may be helpful, the title are awesome. See if you can find the DVD. Good luck.

Hi Satya My friend Carl used

ben_archer — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 13:02:12 -0800

Hi Satya

My friend Carl used to do the design and artwork for BJ Cunningham’s Death cigarettes in the UK. A true cult brand, they got run out of business by the corporate cabal and the governments that do their bidding.

The typeface Carl originally used was Caslon Antique, which I don’t think is in the example here. What there is in there is a lot of (hidden from the customer) quasi-masonic arcana...

In the days of PS Level 1 RIPS (very slow), the Caslon Antique used to make the bureau guys really howl with frustration. Visually, one could argue that the type made it look like the product would do something corrosive to you... this image doesn’t show it (must be a later version) and is from the site of Alistair McIntosh

Not many, personally two,

Alessandro Segalini — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 10:42:50 -0800

Not many, personally two, Patricia Fabricant, but in 2003 I was somehow involved in Dialogue In The Dark in Milan (venues.doc).

Depends on when they started

Linda Cunningham — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 10:13:51 -0800

Depends on when they started smoking — there is a well-known correlation that smoking mothers (as opposed to “smokin’ mamas” [grin]) have children that are frequently both smaller at birth and shorter at age 15....

Yes but how many blind

pattyfab — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 09:59:00 -0800

Yes but how many blind people do you know? I’ve never met a smoking midget but I don’t think that signifies a correlation between smoking and height.

…I only met one blind

James Puckett — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 09:43:17 -0800

...I only met one blind smoker in my life, actually here in Turkey.

That’s a very interesting point.

Well, I can say it is a

Alessandro Segalini — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 09:02:36 -0800

Well, I can say it is a fetish for my memory to me, but I am in the 1 % (if the “design”/making of the cigarette is not included), and I bet 99 % of the smokers like to see the smoke coming out of the mouth, I only met one blind smoker in my life, actually here in Turkey.
On the other hand, I think James Puckett is right, for example Malboro is selling dreams not cigarettes, by the way ATF/Linotype Neo Contact is the typeface used by Malboro.

Isn’t it the guy with the

pattyfab — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 08:54:41 -0800

Isn’t it the guy with the erection in the Camel that makes people smoke?

In the late 60s, I went to a

Bruce — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 08:44:28 -0800

In the late 60s, I went to a small “great books” liberal arts school west of Chicago, called Shimer College. A wonderful place. One of the English professors there had worked in advertising and then subsequently was living out his dream of being a college professor, wearing a tweed jacket with suede elbow patches, smoking a pipe, and driving an antique Jaguar SS100. As he told the story, Marlboro had originally been positioned as a “ladies’ cigarette.” Not a big seller. They then did a complete about face and turned it into the cowboy thing, and Andy was one of the first models to pose in the photographs. He was very glad of this, since the income from all his connections with the creative enabled him to leave the agency and go into teaching. He also was quick to point out how manipulative the whole thing was, and that it had everything to do with image and association, and almost nothing to do with the cigarette itself. Might the agency have been Burnett? Too long ago, can’t remember. (And maybe this is covered in Patty’s book.)

My two puffs worth,

Bruce

here’s NIL: my

franzheidl — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 08:27:44 -0800

here’s NIL:

my grandfather used to smoke these, me too, but the original oval orient NIL is out of production nowadays… sigh.

p.s. the word „REGIE“ is set in Futura Caps today… on the Filtered and Light, oops, i mean on the white ones.

Will it affect the

James Puckett — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 08:00:49 -0800

Will it affect the buyer?

Design is 99% of the reason people smoke. If it wasn’t for all the great design and branding that goes into cigarette advertising and packaging, people wouldn’t consider smoking cool. And if it isn’t cool, why do it? Not for your health...

Typography on the cigarette boxes

satya — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:36:50 -0800

Hello Typophiles,

Right now we all are having our “Package Design Course” at the university. Its a total 4 weeks course including the research, surveys, problem finding and the final product. As a final product we have to redesign the complete package according to the problems we figured out in the existing packaging.

I’ve taken the cigarette packaging for my research. Ive tried few concepts for the boxes but am planning to give a typographic treatment to the cigarette boxes and to the cigarettes. Generally they have very rich classic look but i wanted to try a bit different.

Now the question is - Will it be a good idea to explore typography on cigarette packaging? Will it affect the buyer? Please tell me what you all think about this idea.

Smoking typophiles can tell me what they would like to have on their cig-box, may be i can try that as well :)

Thanks for the time,
Satya_