I'm constantly thinking about different product ideas, and now I wanted to share with you the story of how my matchbox came to be.
The first time the idea for a lighter came to me was years ago from a random video I saw on social media. In it, the speaker said that he thought an advertising lighter was a great way to advertise a company to smokers because they read the company every time they light a cigarette. I don't want to encourage anyone to smoke, but lighters and matches are necessary anyway.
Later, the same idea came up in a discussion about small, affordable products that are easy to grab – for example, in a jeans pocket. Someone mentioned matches that had a joke about making fire on the box. The idea stuck with me, and I started thinking about whether I could design my own matchbox. I thought that even if the matches didn’t sell, I could always use them myself.
The final inspiration for the text for the box came, like 99% of my other product ideas, by chance while browsing social media. I saw a meme with a text about burning bridges. I love different sayings and their reinterpretation, and burning bridges is a beautiful and powerful expression for me.
Ideas often spin in my head like this. There are so many of them that it often happens exactly like this, I have to get the same idea several times before I implement it and it takes several years to actually do it.
Originally, this saying seems to have a negative or scolding tone, how it would not have been worth burning bridges. I think it can also be translated into something positive and empowering. It is indeed worth burning bridges with people, places or other things that destroy you. Leaving the past behind can give you the opportunity to find something new and better. In some issues, such as human rights, choosing a side is inevitable. Those who claim not to want to take a stand or choose a side are silently choosing the side of the oppressor.
At first, I dreamed of a giant matchbox with my own version of the saying about burning bridges printed on it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone in Finland or Europe who could make one. I could order regular-sized matches, but the minimum order quantities were so high that they would have emptied my account. As a small business owner, it's often frustrating how difficult it is to find suitable materials if you can't order them in batches of hundreds of thousands and still want the cheapest price than what private customers pay in stores so that resale would cover its costs.
I finally found a compromise: slightly larger, regular-sized matches that I ordered from a Latvian entrepreneur via Etsy. Her shop, Perfect Occasion Store, offers matches with the image printed directly onto the box – not on a separate paper cover. The print is high-quality, the colors are bright, and they seem to last well.
The boxes have text on the lid and the Roska Art logo on the bottom. I hope this will help my shop stay in the minds of at least a few people who light fires :)
You can buy stick boxes for three euros from my online store or live from Bien's shop located in Turku's B-galleria . This summer, these will definitely also be available at various events where either I or Bien shop will be the sellers, but more information about these later.