Back of the Packet
Bec Morris
Creative Director and Brand Consultant
A 2am idea, brought to life with letterpress
On the 24th June 2025, I was rudely awoken at 2am — not by the neighbours or the weather, but by an idea.
I’m a big believer in the concept that ideas have their own lives (see: Elizabeth Gilbert and Rick Rubin) — that they come to you because they’re ready to be realised, and think that you will be the perfect person to make that happen. I also believe that the more we live creatively outside of our job roles — through reading, drawing, writing, exploring — the more open we become to these ideas visiting.
From spark to sketch
I’ve always been inspired by vintage cigarette packaging and advertising, and the fact I was re-watching Mad Men at the time probably had something to do with the theme of my idea… but I suddenly wanted to design something based on the phrase “back of the cigarette packet ideas”. I always carry a notebook, and I miss the spontaneity of scribbling on whatever’s within reach — a napkin, a cigarette packet, the back of your own hand. The notes app has become a stream of consciousness for us all, holding some of our most unhinged thoughts alongside this week’s shopping list. But where has that tactile connection to handwritten notes gone?
So that’s what came to me. A cigarette packet that’s actually a notebook. Unassuming from the outside, but once opened it reveals pages ready and waiting for your quick scribbles.
So there I was: 2am, sat bolt upright in bed furiously scribbling away. I had the product, the name, the photography concept and the mechanics nailed down by 3am. I then promptly fell back asleep as if the entity that possessed me had left, happy with what it had achieved.
Field research (and one receipt)
The next morning I marched straight to the Co-op to get my hands on a packet of cigarettes. I’m not a smoker (apart from the odd dabble in my 20’s, you can’t deny a cigarette and a pint of Guinness have a certain je ne sais quoi), so to be hit with the price of a pack in modern day currency almost made me drop the whole thing. But, the idea possessed me again and the next thing I know, I’m paying contactless and hoping I can convince HMRC that they class as a business expense.
Back at home, I dismantled the pack, reverse-engineered the net and then figured out how to turn that into a working notebook in disguise. Working this way brings me so much joy — solving problems, connecting dots and creating something new exercises your mind in a way that nothing else does. Choosing papers, colours and binding tape is as important as getting the measurements right.
Objects as rituals
This object is about nostalgia and novelty, but it’s also about ritual. The same way a smoker taps the packet, lights the match, inhales — I wanted this to be a creative ritual. Pulling a pencil from behind the ear, sharpening it like a slow drag. Pulling the notebook from a back pocket and scrawling down an idea before it disappears.
The whole thing is a play on habit — For creators who light up when inspiration strikes.
The packaging had to feel both familiar and subversive. I designed it in muted tones with vintage undertones — off-white, deep red, and monochrome type. The copy became as important as the object itself:
Ideas Unfiltered
A pocket sized notebook designed as a bad habit
WARNING: May ignite ideas
Yes, it’s full of bad puns.
Bringing it to life
I knew I wanted them letterpressed — I’ve been in love with the method since I discovered it at uni, and I have a beautiful deck of Eames cards that have this amazing letterpressed box design. This is where Phil came in.
I sent my designs off to create a plate, and booked in with Phil to bring the idea to life on paper. That visit deserves its own story (and it will get one), but for now I’ll say this: seeing your design inked and pressed on a really old letterpress machine is something every designer should experience. It’s magic. Mechanical and meticulous and completely human.
Still to come…
I’m now in the process of assembling everything. Each notebook will be hand-bound — single sheets glued to a binding strip. The pencils are being custom-made to mimic cigarettes, and I’m planning a photo series showing the set tucked into back pockets, under T-shirt sleeves, resting in ashtrays filled with pencil shavings.
Like the best ideas, it started rough, and now it’s becoming something you can hold.
Ideas Unfiltered is a pocket-sized notebook disguised as a bad habit. Coming soon.
EE Chrisp Letterpress: Instagram
