Catalog NewsWriting on catalogues, printed ephemera and the mail-order tradeReading Room

Reading Room

Everything published here, arranged by section. Each line says what the piece is about so you can go straight to the one you want.

History

The rural route and the parcelHow delivery conditions, not salesmanship, set the shape of the mail-order catalogue.
Parts books and trade cataloguesHow numbering, plates and indexes turn a sales document into a working reference.
Seed catalogues and the seasonHow the sowing calendar shapes the sequence, the tables and the tone of a seed list.

The catalogue as an instrument for choosingWhy the item block, and not the sentence, is the working unit of a catalogue page.
How a catalogue page is plannedColumn grids, gutters and item density, and how the count per page drives the writing.
The language of catalogue copyMeasurement, material and restraint: what separates a description from a sales pitch.
Photographs and drawingsWhat line illustration can do that photography cannot, and where each belongs on the page.

Paper, ink and bindingStock weight, show-through, ink coverage and the binding choices behind a usable catalogue.

The order form as a designed objectField order, error tolerance, and why blank forms are among the most collected ephemera.
Caring for printed ephemeraLight, humidity, enclosures and handling: the practical basics for loose printed matter.

What the screen borrowedA considered argument about which catalogue conventions survived the move to screens.