Candies & Gums: 1940-2025
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One of series of small square books (5.75” x 5.75”, 208 pages) from a Parisian publishing house dedicated to design history. The books let the designs speak for themselves, offering no supporting text, and no discernable organization, simply reproducing artwork from around the world created with marketing in mind. This minor chaos in mind, they’re fascinating to browse.
Candies & Gums 1940-2025 features packaging from China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and most abundantly from Canada, the US, and the UK.
More than 500 labels are reproduced and while some get a full page, others are shrunk smaller than the original size, making some of the finer details hard to discern. Nostalgia and discovery are easily found, along with the occasional sense of regret at missing out on a free James Bond secret agent badge, available for free upon submission of just five James Bond Bubble Gum wrappers and a self-addressed stamped envelope to an address in Haverstown, Pennsylvania.
Banana-flavored bubble gum seems to have had a (forgotten) moment, while kelp-flavored chewing gum may not have spread beyond South Korea. Root Beer Float Mike & Ike’s and Alexander the Grape hard candies from Ferrara Pan are here as well. If this book reveals anything it’s that enormous effort was once put into selling chewing gum.
There are a few labels which rely on racial tropes which have been happily left behind.
Paperback. Color photographs throughout.
