Description:
Hungary had been producing cigarette since 1865. The intention to develop less harmful cigarette products appeared quite early, around the turn of the century. However, the process was slightly slow, as the first filtered versions – as we know them today – were created only in the 1960s in the country. This didn’t mean that any kind of alternative methods had not been used before. In the 1930s the first filtered cigarettes were initiated using simple cotton-wool or celluloze filters. But even prior to that, already in the first years of the 1900s, several ways had been discovered to reduce the nicotine level of cigarettes. They contained lye-treatment or dry destillation for example , but some methods could make the products taste horrible, so those procedures were shut down soon.
The real breakthrough happened in 1930, when the Nikotex Joint Stock Company was founded for the research of the possibilities of reducing nicotine and producing less damaging cigarettes. Soon Nikotex products started to be produced and every brand had a normal and a Nikotex version, including cigar and pipe tobacco as well. A huge commercial campaign was also created for the Nikotex products, and many noted graphic artists were commissioned to design posters, cards and others.
This poster mockup was created by an unknown designer in the early stage of the career of Nikotex, during the 1930s. It is a simple, yet elegant composition with a golden key in front of a deep bourdon background. The bit of the key shapes the word ‘NIKOTEX’. The portrayal is gentle and stylized, it only adds a light shading effect to the image of the key, which has a decorative result, especially at the letters. Although the design didn’t depict any cigarette brand or product, it obviously represented all kinds of Nikotex products as a symbolic key for a less deleterious way of smoking.
