Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Branding and Design in Cigarette Packaging [Hardcover]

Michael Thibodeau (Author), Jana Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

With more than 300 examples of cigarette pack designs, this is an exploration of how designers have used words, pictures and eye-catching graphic design to make smoking irresistible. Complementing the striking images is a text that examines the changing ways in which specific cigarette brands have been promoted over the years. What factors distinguish a successful brand from a flop? Why did the industry market both uptown and downtown brands simultaneously? What makes certain symbols popular across far-flung national boundaries - Tiger cigarettes, for example, pop up from Latin America to Indonesia. And how has the packaging contributed to the fact that cigarettes are still consumed with fervour by people all around the world, regardless of class, culture and the well-known health risks?

Product Details

• Hardcover: 143 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; 1St Edition edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789206404
• ISBN-13: 978-0789206404
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,730,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pack it up, quit now and buy the book instead., June 18, 2004

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Branding and Design in Cigarette Packaging (Hardcover)

Graphic designers will love this book with its colorful comprehensive overview of cigarette containers from around the world. There must be several hundred packs shown (and beautifully printed with each pack having a drop shadow so they look like they're floating on the page) and the authors have managed to arrange them into meaningful chapters. The chapter dealing with 'Patriotism by the Pack' has some great designs, the Tobacco Alternatives Company issued Glory brand (1996) with a flamboyant use of the Stars and Stripes, the White House produced an elegant pack in the Eighties, a flip-top box in cream with just the President's seal on the front.

Now that smoking has lost its cache the last chapter 'The Anti-Packs' has some really offbeat stuff, Trim brand from the Cornell Drug Company in 1960 suggested on its front that it 'curbs your appetite', aimed at the ladies, naturally. Pure brand in 1995 would have you believe that because their product contained no additives you could puff away in good health. I'm not convinced that all the weird brands shown here were serious attempts at creating mass sales though.

Thibodeau and Martin have written a fascinating study about pack art (and the packs are the dominant items in the book) and though there are other books on the subject the only one that might be comparable is Chris Mullen's 'Cigarette Pack Art' (ISBN 0861367898 or 0312138423) which came out in 1980. Written from a European perspective it perhaps has more historical pack material shown and a lot more text.

Oh yes, the book jacket points out that neither of the authors smoke!

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Art Resource, June 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Branding and Design in Cigarette Packaging (Hardcover)

As a graphic designer, I keep a reference library for ideas. This book is one of my absolute favorites. I've used this book for color schemes, concepts, composition and more. Smoking subject matter aside, this book is a beautiful display of something that is an artform in it's own right.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cigarette Art when Smoking was King, January 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Branding and Design in Cigarette Packaging (Hardcover)

I'm not a habitual cigarette smoker, but I'm a sucker for vintage packaging design, as well as books about such design. This medium-sized "coffee table" book is well produced and would be an inspiration to anyone interested in graphic design, typography, advertising, and of course smoking. Anthropologists may also be interested in the use of similar icons (i.e. airplanes, reclining women and tigers) that pop up on cigarette packages from a wide range of different countries/cultures. It's a sad thing that you don't find such sumptuous art on cigarette packages anymore - this book shows that the golden age of cigarettes (and also of product design) is long gone. But I'm glad it's being showcased in this book to share with later generations!