Lately I’ve been so inspired by the apothecary style design work out there. I’ve collected some links and package examples to share some of my inspiration with you. I hope you find them equally enjoyable!
Around the Web
‘IDo’ It Yourself found these free printable labels from Eat.Drink.Chic. The images above are just a taste of what you’ll find!
Brock Ray shared his photos from the National Museum of American History.
Boots Original was featured on The Dieline a while back.
Finally, Beast Pieces did this lovely promo piece for Shine Advertising and shared it last month.
C.O. Bigelow
C.O. Bigelow claims the title of “the oldest apothecary in America” and it’s probably true! They’ve been in business since 1838 in New York. Check out I Love Bigelow, too, for more apothecary style inspiration.
Flickr
Flickr is without a doubt a fantastic place to find inspiration. Each image below is linked to its respective Flickr page.
And then there’s that beauty of a book, The Handy Book of Artistic Printing
As you flip through the book, notice how the printers were always trying to break the bounds of their medium through curved text and images that made it look like pins or nails were holding a note on the page. It really reminded me of what web designers are trying to do now. How funny, huh? Talk about history repeating itself!
Incorporating the Style into Your Designs
So what are some design elements we can pick up from these packages?
Color Palette
I took a look at all of the sample images I’d collected and decided these were the most common colors I saw. I’ve left the label colors muted, even though some of that might have been caused by age. But that’s the point, right? These are supposed to look old!
The liquids were fun—and here’s where the bright colors come in! Green, red and brown were the most common colors.
Finally, there are the bottles. Most of them were clear, lightly tinted green or brown, but then there’s also that signature bright blue (like in the Bigelow Premium collection above).
Type Treatments
Many of the original labels used some form of Copperplate, and for the modern packages, Algerian seems to be a popular choice. There was also extensive use of slab serifs, mainly typewriter style fonts, in both the old and new labels.
Tuscan serifs (the really fancy serifs, check out the link) were also popular in the vintage packaging, but I didn’t see much use of them in modern stuff. It was also interesting that some modern examples use engraved text, though their ancestors (from what I saw) do not. I think the engraved fonts work though. Hand-tooled fonts would also fit the period I think.
Text on a curve was very popular, too, and I think it was a pride thing for the printers of the time (they didn’t have the Type on a Path Tool!).
Hard shadows behind the text was a popular style back then and now, as is using a red accent color for some of the important information on the label. All caps or small caps were and are also quite common.
- Copperplate
- Algerian
- Slab Serifs (like the typewriter fonts)
- Tuscan serifs (really fancy serifs)
- Engraved and hand-tooled fonts
- Text on a curve
- Hard shadows
- Red accent color
- Caps or Small Caps
Shapes
Because these old packages were printed on letterpresses, they often used engraved images with lines for shading. Ribbons or banners were (are) quite popular, as was (and is) placing text inside the ribbon. Artists and printers tried to dress up the labels as much as possible with lines, decorative borders and filigree on the letters. Dividers between text was also common; sometimes it was a simple as a line, other times it was a fancier ornament.
- Ribbons/sashes
- Simple lines for decoration
- Decorative borders
- Filigree
- Dividers – sometimes just a line, sometimes decorative
What else do you notice as you look at the images above? Have you ever studied this time period and picked up a useful or interesting tidbit about design at that time? Share it in the comments!
Note: Post contains affiliate links. Please consider using them in an effort to support Creative Curio! Thanks!
Fantastic collection of pieces. I especially appreciate that you took the time to analyze the components of this unique. Really nice post.
Zachary Schweitzer´s last blog post: “The Bus” gets it Right.
I also saw that book, The Handy Book of Artistic Printing, and so tempted to buy it. For now I put it on my wish list
I think you’ve pinpointed the major design elements of vintage style really well: type treatment, colours and shapes definitely make them what they are. Some come with those old style illustrations as well, that add the vintage flare.
inspirationbit´s last blog post: Striking Web Sites with Font Stacks that Inspire
I’ve always been a big fan of this graphic style. I really enjoyed this post, it was very a great selection of images and very well written, thank you for sharing!
Wow, this post is a goldmine. Many many thanks for putting in the time and effort!
Zachary,
Thanks and you’re welcome!
Vivien,
And FYI, you can find a lot of pre-made art to use in the Dover Pictorial Archive art books, like this Florid Victorian Ornaments
book (affiliate link).
Buy it!! It’s beautiful. In the meantime, you can always hop over to the bookstore and drool over it
LisaT,
You’re welcome! Glad you liked it.
Warren,
What a compliment! Thanks! It took some time to compile all of this, so I’m really pleased everyone is finding it useful.
Great Roundup Lauren! I love designing in this style…Might use this for future inspiration!
Kelly,
This post is all about inspiration, so totally feel free to use it and I hope the pointers at the end of things I noticed will be useful as well.
Thanks!! Glad you liked it
Brilliant post and full of great tips and good for some new inspiration. You put a lot of effort and time into this and it will help a lot of designers like me. Thanks!
you certainly get the “Victorian” England 1890s look for products going in those pictures
Machinist´s last blog …best sci fi movies updated Sat Sep 26 2009 6:20 pm CDT
This is an excellent post. I read many design blogs, and this article stands out across the board. Thank you.
AWE. SUM!
At first, I thought the post would simply feature examples of “neo-apothecary.” But then came the boatload of authentic examples! And nice analysis! Thanks for breaking it down. You reminded me of some great typefaces that I’ve had to block out of my mind for so many years due to misuse. – In fact, just this week I saw local election signs on neighborhood lawns where the Republican city council candidate duo used Algerian(!!) as typeface for their first names!
Really well done, and thanks for the tip about the book. Gotta put that on my list.
Keep up the good work LaurenMarie!
Bruce,
Thanks! I think it’s important to look back at the history of the designs, not just what the modern equivalents look like–they may have gotten it wrong or taken their “creative” interpretation a little too far. It’s also important to understand why a design style works and looks the way it does so we can reproduce them accurately. Glad you found this useful!
wow, what a collection of typography!
Thanks for this, what a brilliant blog!
I’ve never seen a collection like this before, some gorgeous examples, sure to offer great inspiration in my work.
Amanda Vlahakis´s last blog …Work Experience In Graphic Design
Nice Lauren! I love the idea behind this post. While I was admiring the photos I was thinking only of how cool they all were and that I’ve always liked this type of style as well. Then I saw the colors you sampled and it was like “well duh Charity!” What a great way to find some “fresh” palettes.
We’ve all heard of pulling a color scheme from a photo, but I never would’ve thought of collecting a specific group of photos for multiple sampling. And I’m actually really surprised by how bright some of the colors were that you discovered. I like.
Some really great ideas here – thank you sooo much. You’ve given me some much needed inspiration!!
This article is AMAZING! The time you put into analyzing and dissecting what made these designs so singular and so great is really inspiring.
While I was admiring the photos I was thinking only of how cool they all were and that I’ve always liked this type of style as well
I still have the handset type and was a compositor that used to typeset those labels you admire. It is pleasing to see a recognition of letterpress. If you have any queries or think I can be of any help don’t hesitate to contact me but I would prefer it through desdugan@gmail.com as the other email is for the website. Have you tried to put utube videos into CS3 and have them work when they come out as the PDF and flash pages?
third collection looks like heroin containers
love them all . i just love creative thinking
Love the Shine promo box. Not sure about the “Do It Yourself” bottles, looks like old medicine?
How easy do we have it now. I am actually designing my own website. It is such a simple process, that I am amaze that I have not done this before. How lucky are we to live and work in the information era.
Gorgeous typography that reflected a time where craft made a difference. I love it.
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