STATIONERY IN the growth of the advertising spirit, increasing attention is devoted to stationery by nearly all business houses. In the old days anything would do for business letters and very little care was given to their appearance. The retail trader would carry on his correspondence on notepaper advertising some speciality, provided for him free by the wholesale distributor. Offices frequently had letter headings designed by sonic crude printer, which remained in force for thirty or forty years. Little or no attention was given to the details, such as the fold of the paper, the envelope, the printed heading, or the quality of the paper itself, and the result was generally a slovenly appearance which was not particularly noticeable because it was the fault of nearly all business correspondence.
In the retail trade an improvement in stationery for office purposes became noticeable with the growth of the form letter. Directly the value of the personal letter was seen by the retailer the importance of making it look well became manifest. As a consequence, the stationery of many retailers has undergone a great improvement, and such firms pay special attention to all the necessary details.
The tendency of business stationery to-day in this direction is towards simplicity. It is not now considered sufficient to use notepaper printed by some advertising firm, nor is it considered good taste to use the old-fashioned scroll devices, with a list of goods in which the firm trades running as a sort of margin half-way round the sheet. To-day the retail firm aims at a very good paper, a neat title with the address, and very often leaves the rest as plain as private stationery. Envelopes are made to match this, and when the letter is made up and appears in the post of the recipient the next day, there is nothing to distinguish the tradesman's circular from the private correspondence received at the same time. The same applies to business stationery throughout. The old-fashioned, complicated, and elaborate letter headings have given place to the neatly embossed address, containing a well designed title and a few of the essential particulars. The w hole is printed neatly and carefully on paper which is as good in qirality as that used for private correspondence, and the envelopes, which are made to mach, very often have a lie-stamped design on the back. It is considered that the extra expense of having first-class stationery is more than compensated for by the added advertising value of the appearance of the well-turned-out letter. Just as people pay attention to their advertisements, the personal
appearance of their outside representatives, the smartness of their head quarters for trading purposes, so they carry this suggestion of thought and taste through the minor details of their office stationery.
A great feature nowadays is the note of uniformity. Retail traders frequently use stationery which has imprinted the title of the firm designed in characteristic lettering, and they use this design throughout everything they issue, which includes the title of the firm itself. For instance, the note heading of many successful business concerns, so far as the lettering of the name of the firm is concerned, very often appears on labels on packages, post cards, window tickets, window lettering, and outdoor signs, while there are firms in the general trade who not only do this, but carry the same design into their advertising. This tendency to uniformity adds a little to the cost of everything included in the scheme, but its effect is one of order and good taste which has its influence on the impression made from the advertising point of view on the minds of people who deal with the house, The idea of carrying out the design throughout everything that is issued was first embodied in the policy of a big London store, and amongst up-to-date retailers it has become part of a settled policy from which there is scarcely any deviation. To secure this kind of design for use on everything—from the letter-heading to the outdoor sign and the advertisement—it is necessary to secure the assistance of a capable designer. Artists who make a speciality of lettering for trailing purposes will draw a special design of an individual character for the trader, and after the design is settled, the task of reproducing in various forms is quite simple. A die may be cast for stationery, labels, and post-cards; the sign-writer will reproduce it for lettering windows and signs out of doors ; while the advertising agent, who undertakes the publicity, will reproduce it for the purposes of illustrating press advertisements. The appearance of stationery and lettering generally associated with a firm is one of those little details in business conduct which are apparently of little importance, but they frequently mean much in the general effect produced on the public mind.