We at Traina are passionate about design and our holidays. To get in the spirit of Halloween this year, we thought it would be fun to look back on some of our favorite retro candy packaging from Halloweens past. These may not be the cleanest designs, but they sure are fun to look at.
Stripe Appeal
The vintage Three Musketeers packaging is iconic. From the bold three stripe design, to the eye-catching red, white and blue color scheme, this bar truly stands apart. We love the all caps slab serif type paired with the crudely illustrated (in a good way) Musketeers.
Great Balls o’ Fire
Staying true to its fiery hot flavor, this classic package graphically demonstrates the explosive qualities of the fire balls. The use of the die cut within the mushroom cloud to give a peek at the product while also visually aligning it with the explosion is an especially nice touch. Bold yellow and red are the perfect combo for this arresting bright package.
Dot Dot Dot
The simple use of shape and typography in the logo to create a clear concept is as tasty as these little candies themselves. The graphic nature of this logo, paired with the bright yellow and playfully positioned “dancing” dots makes this package a must-have for our retro Halloween basket.
Checkerboard-One-Two-One-Two
Few packages are as instantly identifiable as the iconic Abba-Zaba bar. The energy of the bright yellow combined with the timeless checkerboard make this one of our all-time favs.
Imperials Strike Back
Our mouths are watering just looking at this one. The simple yet effective use of the product as the pattern and main visual is genius. The playful circular forms, bright red color, and use of negative space between the candies makes this a very recognizable and fun piece. We are especially keen on the retro logo violator and extended sans serif type.
Poppin’ Fresh
Few logos typographically represent their product as well as Bubblicious. The pink bubbly letterforms both reference the chewy nature of the gum and bubbly potential. The playful forms and contrasting pink on yellow make this pop out amongst competing gum brands.
Bite O’ Bit
Retro design at its best. The iconic yellow diagonal stripe across the warm red brings a nice simple energy, while providing a great landing strip for the Bit-O-Honey condensed logotype. Note the simple offset white drop behind the blue letters adds a touch of motion to the type.
Delicious-Is-What-We-Call-It
Aside from the tasty crispy bars, we find the nice muted color palette on the design especially delish. The warm orange and red next to the tan brown evoke a nostalgic longing for the 80s. The playfully aligned and thick hand drawn feel of the letterforms within the logo add the perfect casual touch to the silly named bar. The simple use of color to phonetically break up the name is also a great visual tool for this iconic logotype.
Friendly Forms
While we never had a Caramac bar in our Halloween basket, this simple, friendly design sure makes us wish we had. We love the friendly rounded letterforms, which play nicely with the horizontal wave across the bar. A nice subtle gem is the Chalet-esque font typeset in a lightweight lowercase in the top left.
Hey Now, You’re a Starbar
If Quentin Tarantino owned a candy bar company, we’d imagine the packaging to look something like this. The concentric forms around the type, brown color descending to yellow within the palette, and blocky nuanced type all make this gorgeous retro packaging feel right at home in the disco-era.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our brief but tasty candy packaging retrospective. By no means is this an exhaustive search, but may inspire some fun vintage-esque ideas. From our candy-holic team to yours, have a happy and safe Halloween!
