Good Stationery is Nothing to Fight About

“Stationery” is a term that used to refer to anything that a stationer sold. While this word was pretty common in 1688,  it’s sort of fallen out of popular use in 2016 (where we’re facing down interjections like “meh” and words like “literally” for figuratively.)

But the history of stationery is literally a modern-day soap opera. There are pens made exclusively for women, “vintage” stationery that’s supposed to spark our interest in romance, and serious fights over pen designs.

The fact is that stationery can cause an uproar, and you want to make sure your designs matter.

Stationery, first started by the Egyptians with the discovery and use of papyrus, has caused grown women to fight each other in stores and a really large pencil to incite smiles from babies. But stationery wasn’t always this popular– even the venerable Post-It Note founders had to force people to take samples.

But today, stationery is a big business, and if you’re not ready to stick with it (Post-It joke, sorry), you might as well not even use it. One question you might be asking is “do people even use stationery anymore?” to which we scoff. Uh. Yes. If you have to mail documents, send invoices, or incorporate direct mail into your business, then you’re going to want to make sure that your stationery is up to standards and to ensure you’re missing some common design errors. You wouldn’t want to cause any fights over poor designs!