Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

winged cherubs framing a globe), while Shiyosegumi Seizo’s labels were
heavily typographic, with tiny images integrated into the overall design. But
for the most part, the labels followed a standard template that was
developed in the late nineteenth century and was maintained for decades.
Phillumenists explain that the extraordinarily large number of
diverse matchbox labels had to do with the sophisticated marketing ruse of
cultivating a collector’s mentality among their consumers. This kind of
thinking is not unlike the strategy for selling razor blades (where one brand
issued various collectible packages and wrappers) or cigarettes (where
serially collectible cards were incentives).
During this period, matchboxes were sold indiscriminately
through all kinds of stores and vendors as a necessity not just for lighting
the ubiquitous smoking materials, but also for routinely igniting fires in
ovens, grills, and heaters. Not until the 1930 s were matchboxes and
matchbooks—the newer, more compact invention—produced as vehicles
specifically to promote and advertise restaurants, shops, and businesses. In
fact, the comparatively early stage of Japanese matchbox manufacturing and
design seemed bent on making its profit by satisfying the public’s desire for
the purity of their design. Back then, the only thing that these labels
promoted were their matchboxes.