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Matchbook Book: the archive keeping a lost design legacy alight
The 'Matchbook Book' serves as a nostalgic reminder of a bygone era in branding, showcasing how matchbooks were once a vital marketing tool that captured cultural history. For brand strategy, this highlights the importance of tangible, memorable branding elements that evoke emotional connections and document everyday life, suggesting that brands should consider how their physical artifacts can tell stories and resonate with consumers on a personal level.
Its Nice That: Features Graphic Design Publication Book Archive Food & Drink History Matchbook Book: the archive keeping a lost design legacy alight Once a mainstay of social life in Britain, the branded matchbook no longer accompanies a restaurant bill or sits on a pub’s bar.
This new book presents a vast collection of these miniature windows into the graphic sensibilities of a former era. Share Features Graphic Design Publication Book Archive Food & Drink History Share As wild as it might sound to anyone born within the last 20 years, there was a time not too long ago when you could smoke indoors – and pretty much anywhere: restaurants, workplaces, planes, pubs and even hospitals. With such free rein to light one up, and before the mass production of disposable lighters, people needed easy access to a flame, and it was here that the trusty matchbook came in handy.
Savvy establishments took advantage of this ubiquitous medium as a marketing ploy, making branded and often tongue-in-cheek complimentary matchbooks for diners, shoppers and drinkers – a memento that wasn’t only useful, but reminded said smoker of good times had at every strike. You’d now be hard-pushed to come across a branded matchbook while out and about, which is what makes the new book from publisher CentreCentre so great – it presents a vast archive of the graphic squares, from 1970-1990, currently under the ward of Billy Woods, who inherited the collection from his father.
Below, Billy and CentreCentre founder and designer Patrick Fry talk about the matchbooks as historical windows into life in the UK, making the book’s cover a direct homage to its subject matter and why nothing beats visible signs of use. “The way such a modest object could hold so much personal and cultural history was instantly appealing.”Billy Woods “The way such a modest object could hold so much personal and cultural history was instantly appealing.” 1 of 4 CentreCentre: Matchbook Book (Copyright © CentreCentre and Billy Woods, 2026) 1 of 4 CentreCentre: Matchbook Book (Copyright © CentreCentre and Billy Woods, 2026) Q&A with Billy Woods,
matchbook archivist INT: When and why did you start collecting matchbooks? Billy Woods (BW): My dad began collecting matchbooks in the early 1970s, He filled a series of large glass jars over many years as he returned from work, nights out and weekends away. There were thousands. When he stopped smoking in the late 1990s, he passed the collection on to me — and I continued. I’ve been collecting for around 20 years now. Discovering the full extent of his collection was incredibly exciting.
As I looked through the jars, I realised I could trace some of the best memories of my childhood through those small, printed covers: local restaurants we used to visit, hotels we stayed in, family holidays we went on. All of it captured in miniature form. That immediacy, the way such a modest object could hold so much personal and cultural history was instantly appealing.
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The article highlights a unique aspect of branding through historical artifacts, which is significant but not groundbreaking, and offers relevant insights for brand strategy professionals on the emotional connection of tangible branding.