itsnicethat: “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. 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..”