A different stock is frequently used for the covers of house-organs, but equally popular is the self-cover style—the first page of an eight- or sixteen-page form containing the cover design. The practices that govern the use of cover designs on periodicals apply to some extent to house-organs, although typographic covers are more often found on the last-mentioned kind of publication.
Example [441] shows a typographic cover in which most of the page is given over to a table of contents—not a bad idea when the contents are abundant.
Should a house-organ consist of only two or four leaves, it is unnecessary to give over the entire first page to a cover design, as the title could be treated as in Examples [436], [438], [439], [448] and [452]. If the cover page is to be lettered, it is well to have it treated in a style that will harmonize with the typography of the inner pages. See Example [435].
Seldom is there any reason for a house-organ to contain more than four or eight pages. Few of the more ambitious house-organs survive the first one or two issues, or are profitable if they do. A house-organ to be effective should be published regularly. Too many instead of being periodicals are “spasmodicals.” There is more likelihood of a house-organ being published regularly if it be modest in plan and brief in contents. Printers err when they suggest elaborate and bulky house-organs to their customers. The smaller kind, neat and stylish in typography, attractive in make-up, good to look at and easy to read, are more desirable under average conditions.
EXAMPLE 433
EXAMPLE 434
EXAMPLE 435
Pages from a quaintly-treated house-organ, by the Seaver Howland Press, Boston. Both type and illustration suggest the “good old days”