Eye Candy: Sweet Style, Pop Design and the Joy of Colour

With Halloween approaching, I find myself thinking back to my first trick-or-treating days in early 70s Osceola, Indiana. Wet leaves underfoot, my princess costume shielding me from the rain, paper bag slowly filling. The sweet treats were good, but the packaging made an everlasting impression. All stripes, bold graphics and cartoony fun.

Pixy Stix came in striped paper straws that snapped to unleash tangy coloured powder straight into your gob — pure, reckless joy in a cascade of colour.

Tootsie Rolls were the opposite: neat brown cylinders with crisp white ends and strips of red framing the rounded Cooper Black type. Bold yet understated. 

Then there were the Ferrara Pan greats – Lemonheads, Red Hots, Jaw Breakers… The names alone were irresistible. The Lemonheads were named after the candy (Evan Dando’s new album is worth a listen). And who doesn’t want to brave something labelled an Atomic Fire Ball? 

Dum-Dums had that wonderful pattern repetition of the logo printed over and over around the lollipop wrappers, which held great value! Save them, send in with a coin or two, and a novelty item would arrive in the post. The tactile stack of waxy papers covering the sweets felt like a wad of cash in a kid’s hands. 

Bottle Caps were a genius combo – soda pop turned candy, shaped exactly as their name suggests. The bright green pouches fizzed with charm, the caps brought to life with googly eyes and classic cartoon hands.

I think all that early sweet-wrapped education stuck. For our first trade show in New York, our shoes were lined up like colourful confections. And at an early pop-up on Calvert Avenue in Shoreditch, visitors could try their luck with a spin of our Wheel of Fortune for prizes including candy, or win a pair of shoes by guessing the number of shoehorns inside a big candy jar. It was a mix of chance, colour and play that still feels very us.

So go on — take your pick’n’mix.