Food Packaging: 1930-2000

Part of a 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.

Food Packaging 1930-2000 offers images of more than 300 different examples of food packaging from at least fifteen different countries, with a preponderance of American fruits, vegetables, and cereals, Norwegian canned sardines, and convenience foods from the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s.

Vintage American produce labels appear alongside coffees from the USSR, Australian candy bars, British tea bags, and US-originated breakfast cereals repackaged for other countries, other continents.

Many labels promote products that have gone the way of history, either because of changing tastes or the relatively brief moment when people might have been interested in the Björn Borg bar (chocolate filled with caramel, hazelnuts, and soft nougat) or breakfast cereals tied to the Pink Panther, Popeye, and Mr. T.

There are a few labels which rely on racial tropes which have been happily left behind.

Paperback. 5.75” x 5.75”, 208 pages. No text.