Artist publishes compendium of UK crisp-packet designs from 1970–2000

Artist Chris Packet has compiled UK Crisp Packets 1970-2000, a 140-page book that showcases colourful, unusual and nostalgic crisp-packet designs from across the UK. The collection includes a wide range of flavours and tie-ins: smoky spider Monster Munch, a Bovril crisp linked to Back to the Future, hedgehog flavour, a Wallace and Gromit “moon cheese” snack, and childhood favourites such as Chipsticks, Frazzles and Snaps.

Packet documents branded and regional packets — Dennis the Menace bacon and baked bean, Golden Wonder roast turkey and stuffing, Sonic the Hedgehog salt and vinegar — as well as TV and film special editions including the Spice Girls, Thunderbirds, Dr Who, The Mask and Jurassic Park.

Packet began collecting after finding decades-old packets in a disused London train tunnel in 2018, including a pickled onion Space Raiders marked 10p. He told the Guardian the finds “brought back strong memories” and made him realise the graphic quality of the packets; he said his collecting is driven by the artwork, lettering and illustration and that packets “lost something” after 2000 as computer-aided design replaced hand-drawn work.

The book includes a foreword by Annebella Pollen, who calls the packets “cultural detritus” that can tell an alternative history and describes them as part of children’s culture, noting changes such as bans in schools linked to efforts on childhood obesity.

Key Topics

Culture, Chris Packet, Uk Crisp Packets, London, Monster Munch, Space Raiders