Life, 1921-01-20 · page 33 of 36
Life — January 20, 1921 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is not a cartoon or satire—it's a straightforward **trade advertisement** for Warren's Standard Printing Papers from 1921. The page announces a monthly distribution program: paper merchants selling Warren's brand will distribute free instructional booklets designed to be "cut up" by printers, designers, and advertising managers. These dummy books contain specimen layouts, typefaces, borders, and decorative elements to help professionals quickly mock up designs for catalogs, brochures, and other printed materials. Each book also demonstrates Warren's paper quality. The ad emphasizes the books aren't for sale but are free promotional tools distributed through listed paper merchants nationwide (and internationally). A small sidebar logo notes "better paper / better printing." **For modern readers:** This reflects pre-digital design workflows where professionals literally used scissors and paste to assemble layouts before photocopying or printing—a standard practice until computers replaced this physical process.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BOO that are made to be cut up NCE each month for the year 1921 every paper merchant who sells Warren's Standard Printing Papers will distribute copies of a series of books known as ‘Printing Sales Material.”’ These books are made to be cut up. They are intended to enable the printer, artist, designer, or advertising manager to sit down with shears and paste and in a few minutes prepare a presentable and understandable dummy for any sort of book- let, catalog, or folder. Each of these books shows specimens of type pages and layouts, type faces, title pages, covers, illus- trations, rules, borders, decorations, etc., that are exactly the sort of thing needed for the first steps in planning printing. In addition, each book is a demonstration of the printing possibilities of the Warren Standard Paper upon which it is printed. These books are nct sold. They are distributed by the merchants who sell Warren’s Standard Printing Papers. A list of these firms is printed here. The list will not appear in subsequent advertise- ments. We suggest you make a note now of the distributor nearest your city, and apply to him if you can use these books. S. D. WARREN COMPANY, Boston, Mass. List of Paper Merchants Who Sell Warren's Standard Printing Papers Atlanta, Ga Sloan Paper Co Baltimore. Md L. Ward Co. Boston, Mass A Storrs & Bement Co Boffalo.N Y The Alling @ Cory Co Chicago, 1 JW’ Butler Paper Co. - Cincinnati, Ohio The Diem & Wing Paper C Cleveland, Ohio The Petrequin Paper Co Columbus, Ohio The Diem & Wing Paper Co Dallas, Texas Southwestern Paper Co Detroit, Mich Butler Paper Co Grand Rapids, Mich Central Michigan Paper Co. Hartford, Conn Henry Lindenmeyr & Sons Houston, Texas Southwestern Paper Co. Jacksonville, Florida Antietam Paper Co, Inc Kansas City, Mo. Missouri Interstate Paper Co Los Angeles, C Sierra Paper Co Louisville. Ky The Diem & Wing Paper Co Lynchburg, Va Caskie-Dillard Co., Inc Memphis, Tenn, Tayloe Paper Co Milwaukee, Wis Standard Paper Co Minneapolis. Minn The John Leslie Paper Co. Newark, N.J Henry Lindenmeyr & Sons New Haven, Conn. A. Storrs @& Bement Co New Orleans, La. The Diem & Wing Paper Co. New York City Henry Lindenmeyr & Sons New York City (Export) National Paper & Type Co Or-aha, Neb. Field. Hamilton-Smith Paper Co Philadelphia, Pa D.L. Ward Co Pittsburgh, Pa The Alling & Cory Co. Portland, Me. C. M. Rice Paper Co Portland, Ore Endicott Paper Co. Richmond, Va. D.L. Ward Ce Rochester, N. ¥. The Ailing @ Cory Co St. Louls, Mo Mississippi Valley Paper Co St. Paul, Minn, ‘Nassau Paper Co San Francisco, Cal Pacific Const Paper Co. Seattle, Wash. Mutual Paper Co. Springfield, Mass. ‘The Paper House of New England Washington, D.C., D. L. Ward Co. London, England, Lindenmeyr & Johnson Paper Co, Ltd Australia (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney), B. J. Ball, Ltd. STANDARD PRINTING PAPERS comicbooks.com