These old styles are still in production today. Pharmaceutical products seem to have the most staying power. Many of them still lack barcodes - that evil which has helped to homogenise modern packaging. The use of colour and typography shows most clearly the influence of the processes used in production. Basic 2 and 3 colour print jobs abound. "Fat" lines and simple drawings predominate, with typography often doubling as the primary decoration. The use of auspicious animal characters and symbols are quite common and reflect the cultural origins of the manufacturers and their esoteric compounds. While not optically seductive by the standards of modern Western packages, there is something intangible in the charms of these packages. Something hard to pin down; something that has been lost in the refinement of production techniques and branding panache.
Enjoy these while you can. As consumer sophistication evolves and advanced printing techniques and materials proliferate, these styles will undoubtedly disappear from the shelves. And when that time comes, I think we will all be a little poorer for it.