Digging around my grandparent’s cabin recently, in the hills of WV, I discovered a treasure trove of design inspiration.
A cast iron pot of old matchbooks.
See, my grandfather passed away in the early 1980′s and grandmother in the early 1990′s, so the place is a sort of a time capsule even though the immediate family still vacations there.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun digging through the old matchbooks, and I decided to scan the ones that caught my attention for you. Enjoy.
1. Good font choice, color combo, and letterpressed tag line. Green matches a plus!
2. Always a fan of retro red on old paper. Good art, too.
3. Throwback logo, but it’s definitely a modern color palette.
4. Red and pink color combo are hot right now. Blue matches are cool, too.
5. Other than the smoking propaganda, “Smoke Smart!!” and “You don’t have to inhale,” I like the bold colors.
6. Ever thought about using this many dollar signs on your capital program literature? 
7. I like the dots. Inside says, “Oh Thank Heaven – 7 Eleven.”
8. I really like the gold on white. Kind of different for current trends.
9. Purple is in.
10. I like this blue and the horizontal lines.
Love it Cleave…those are some seriously cool trends and I would imagine there are some fascinating stories behind each one…if only matchbooks could talk