Art of Design #36: Hotel Letterheads From the Past

Letterhead is one of those ubiquitous components of businesses around the world. They go hand-in-hand with business cards to help a company communicate with the outside world: its customers, vendors and suppliers, even competitors.

The letterhead is where you’ll find the essential information of a company such as the name, address, phone and most likely a logo – maybe even a motto or some intelligent line of copy that helps position the firm in the mind of the reader.

This collection of hotel letterhead from the past demonstrates the sense of style and tone that are captured by this workhorse marketing tool. It used to be an accepted and expected practice for several sheets of letterhead and envelopes to be left in the rooms for guests to use should they require these materials for dashing off an important message.

Now, hoteliers simply offer Wi-Fi and a small pad of 4” x 6” paper and call it a day. Enjoy this trip back in time – imagine staying at one of these establishments. You might even feel moved to let these classic designs and typefaces influence your future projects.