packaging as content

July 20, 2010

Die-Cut, Package-Shaped Recipe Booklets

Front & back of the “White House Cereals” booklet (via eBay)

Sometimes food manufacturers put out promotional booklets of recipes.
Sometimes these booklets are shaped like packages.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s the printing industry developed a new technique for producing attractive books. First marking an outline of a product or an illustration on wooden rollers, printers then inserted thin blades on the outline, which cut out shapes on paper. The end result was a recipe booklet that caught the consumer’s attention, helped with product identification, and promoted sales.

Vintage Cookbooks and Advertising Leaflets
by Sandra A. Norman and Karrie K. Andes
(via: Months of Edible Celebrations)

(Many more examples, after the fold…)

Upper left: White House Cereals booklet (via eBay); on right: Heinz Bean Recipes (from Edible Celebration’s Flickr Photostream); 2nd row, left: Calumet Baking Powder booklet; on right: Hellmann’s recipe booklet (from: TimePassagesNostalgia.com); bottom row, left: Sunny Can Sugar recipes (from Edible Celebration’s Flickr Photostream); on right: Campbell’s Soup Recipes

from the University of Iowa’s: Szathmary Recipe Pamphlet Digital Collection

1902 Jell-o pamphlet from: Edible Celebration’s Flickr Photostream

1900s Quaker Oats recipes from Edible Celebration’s Flickr Photostream

(Towle’s Bucket Syrup recipes from Months of Edible Celebrations

Gilbey’s Gin bottle-shaped mixed drink recipe booklet from Edible Celebration’s Flickr Photostream

(See also: Perfection)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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