Joseph Martinez Oil Painting using the inside covers of match books as his canvas!
A fascinating re-purposing of Paper match books that are used by the artist Joseph Martinez to create original life like oil paintings as mini works of pocket fine art!
Check out the video montage of Joseph's fascinating work on Vimeo:
FEATURE MATCHES - Match Books with Colorful Images Printed Across Flattened Match Stems
ASSORTMENT OF VINTAGE "FEATURE" -MATCH BOOKS WITH CUSTOM PRINTED FLATTENED MATCH STEMS.
Branded Match Books serve as mementos from places that you've visited or vacationed at, make great keepsakes from cherished family events and obviously, are a convenient and reliable source of fire for lighting candles, fireplaces, barbecues, incense, igniting gas pilot lights, as well as an essential item for use when camping. To this day advertising matches remain as one of the most inexpensive and highest impact forms of advertising -serving as "Functional Business Cards" that are widely accepted by your customers for the uses mentioned above while at the same time serving to promote your business, product or service.
Over 60 years ago, match company salesman would pitch potential customers with the catchy phrase: "your match books act as 20 little salesmen" meaning that when each of the 20 individual matches (in a standard match book) was removed and struck by it's user, it served as an opportunity to reinforce your company's brand 20 times!
"You can't beat match books for good, inexpensive advertising," says John Williams, publicity manager of The American Matchcover Collecting Club. When traveling through the smallest towns, you should still be able to pick up matches from restaurants, hotels and businesses who still believe in the power of these economical "pocket billboards" to advertise their businesses.
Match cover collecting satisfies every collector's urge to organize, classify, categorize and display .
In this post I'll be featuring the highly collectible and unique FEATURE -match books with colorful images across flattened sticks. Lion Match Corporation was the first match manufacturer to design and produce the feature match book.
The first FEATURE match books were Giant Sized -about 4" tall!
1936 Giant Feature Match Book advertising a Buick sponsored NBC Radio Show1936 Giant Feature Match Book a Buick Sponsored NBC Boxing Radio ShowEarly GE Giant Feature Match BookEarly General Electric Giant Feature Match Book with Selling Tips
There were also other special options that were later introduced such as special die cut match cover shapes offered to enhance the image of the advertising product by making it stand out with a 2 Dimensional look outside in addition to the feature -printed match stems inside:
'57 Pontiac Special Die Cut Feature Match Book'57 Pontiac Match Book with Feature printed match stems depicting an illustration of their new V8 Engine
And an example of a Political Feature Match Book:
Wendell Wilkie Printed Stem Feature Match Book "What the People Want"
For the first time in 40 years, The Match Group is proud to announce that we have an exclusive arrangement to produce several styles of highly collectible and sought out vintage #featurematches -customized with your logo and ad copy to promote your business!
You can rely upon TheMatchGroupto keep the flame of match advertising lit! Call one of our match mavens at 800.605.7331 today to design your business' own branded advertising match books, match boxes or feature matchbooks!
Yes. Matches provide two very import basic human needs: lighting a fire warmth and for cooking.
My company TheMatchGroup produces branded matches for restaurants, hotels, candle companies and tobacconists for them to use the element of fire as a basis for what we refer to branded matches as "Functional Business Cards".
Still a Timely Article Written a Few Years Ago on the Website RestaurantOwner.com
"...consider every little branded item as a mini billboard"
Here's an excerpt from the article:
...It seems that we use every square inch of space these days -- even on our clothing -- to advertise our services. However, people notice them and are usually pleased when they learn about a good service or product.
"Ad specialties" are items such as [matches, coasters, napkins, paper to go bags], pens, hats, or T-shirts with your restaurant's name, logo and sometimes address, phone number or Web site printed on them. No matter how small your restaurant, promo specialties are within your budget.
Every restaurant can use ad specialties, but before you order 500 baseball caps with your restaurant's name and logo on them, consider the pros and cons. Make sure you spend your money in the best possible way.
Applications
Ad specialties can range from matches to active wear, breath mints with your restaurant's logo printed on the wrapper to custom etched shot and wine glasses. Regardless of the item, the goals of ad specialty items are always the same:
First, you provide a useful gift to your customer to appreciate, enjoy, and, most importantly, identify with your business. While you can find ways to use these items to win over prospective customers, these items are most effective as tools to build repeat business from existing customers.
Second, promotional items help develop and cement a relationship, in the same way people give gifts to friends to strengthen their bonds. [Distribution of these] items also increase your share of "heart and mind" in the community, as your pens, mints, toothpicks, coasters and matches find their way into your customers' kitchens, offices, and classrooms, as [functional] reminders of (hopefully) their [enjoyable experience] at their favorite restaurants.
Third, your branded items will help reinforce your logo and [should] reflect your concept. While it seems like common sense, every ad specialty should prominently bear the business's name and logo....Consider every item a little billboard.
Place your order for your restaurant's functional business cards and table top promotional paper products such as coasters, napkins, toothpicks, branded sugar stick packets, breath mints, napkin bands, pens, as well as printed paper handle bags and at the same time get in on the ”Hot Match on Striker Action” by calling one of our "match makers" at 800.605.7331!
Match Books (L) TIBOR KALMAN'S DESIGN for "Restaurant Florent" and (R) DAMIAN HIRST's DESIGN FOR "PHARMACY" in LONDON
Great excerpt from a blog post fromDEMIAN REPUCCIdated Oct 2009
"restaurant matchbooks .....are an extension of the restaurants’ brand and a telling exercise in the use of its’ graphic identity"
....I was thinking about the whole ‘matches -in-restaurants’ thing. Of course they were originally there for the convenience of the smokers at the bar, waiting for a table or enjoying an after dinner drink. Which then served a dual purpose of being a convenient way for those diners to go home with a little branded reminder of the restaurant in their pocket. Now that smoking has been all but wiped from the face of the Earth, it seems that restaurant match books should have disappeared too. But they remain. Why would a restaurant continue to pay more for a vehicle for its logo and information when a business card can do the same thing for less? There are usually a stack of business cards available at a restaurants’ front desk. Do those fly out the door? Probably not or we would be reading an article about restaurant business cards.
I think restauranteurs understand the psychological [and visual impact] ...... People will take matches to have some connection with ...cool.Even if they just end up putting them in a jar...
Of course many people will say that they use them to light candles, birthday cakes, grills, etc. Whatever the excuse, restaurants are happy to fund a diner’s home candle lighting if that means that the restaurant’s brand will continue to be brought back into the diner’s consciousness. Not to mention that a matchbook promises 20 future reminders. Which, come to think of it, may not be a bad deal after all. How many times do you look at a business card on your desk before you throw it away? Once? Twice?
All of this then led me to think about matches as the great little graphic design projects that they can be. Some are very well thought out and beautifully designed. Others are just fun or clever. But either way there are some gems out there. I, myself, have only held onto a few matchbooks which I thought were of superior design quality or somehow captured the concept of the restaurant in a way that I wanted to remember. My two favorites are pictured above. The matchbook on the left is from the famed, and now closed, Restaurant Florent [which was originally located in what is the now upscale Meatpacking District in NYC] -ed. What a great place that was. The restaurant's graphics, including the matches, were designed by the legendary Tibor Kalman and M&Co. Kalman’s graphic design for Florent was brilliant in it’s ability to not only capture the ethos of the restaurant but to also reinforce it. A superb example of restaurant branding.
The matches on the right are from super-star artist Damien Hirst's brief foray into the restaurant world which was Pharmacy in London. Graphically the blue dots are nice but a bit simple compared to his famous multi-colored dot paintings. What is genius about these matches is that Hirst treats them from the beginning as collector’s items. The other side of this matchbook says “(09) in a series of 60″ on it. The medium that Hirst is most adept at using as an artist is his brand. And he is true to that right down to the little match books in his restaurant. This, of course, makes me look like an idiot as the matchbook is beat up and half the wood matches on the inside have been used. What was I thinking?
Anyway, I love restaurant matchbooks because they are an extension of the restaurants’ brand and a telling exercise in the use of its’ graphic identity. There is something special about a restaurant that invests the time and care to design a beautiful matchbook.
To get in on the ”Hot Match on Striker Action” go to TheMatchGroup and call one of our expert 'match makers at 800.605.7331 or email us at: strike@getmatches.com to get your business' branded matches!
Match Books (L) TIBOR KALMAN'S DESIGN for "Restaurant Florent" and (R) DAMIAN HIRST's DESIGN FOR "PHARMACY" in LONDON