Future of the Trade
Because the merchant believes that seeing is very likely to mean buying he finds the show-card writer indispensable to his business. Whether large or small, every store needs these display cards with their catchy announcements to aid in promoting business. Present-day competition makes it necessary that every known means at attracting attention shall be utilized by the merchant who would keep up in his line. Progressiveness in store management has occasioned rapid growth in the trade of card writing within the last few years, and the constantly increasing demand for advertising indicates that the trade of show-card writing has an assured future.
Equipment
For the man possessing limited capital the small cost of the necessary equipment is an alluring inducement to enter the trade. A few dollars will cover the entire cost. Brushes, pens, penholder, with ink retainer, ruler, art gum or sponge rubber, thumb tacks, combination compass, a pair of large shears, a T-square, a box of charcoal, soft lead pencils, and cardboard make up the list of necessary material for the show-card writer. A good-sized drawing board completes the list. “The better the workman the fewer the tools” has been said. An expert card writer works efficiently with a board, a T-square, and a half dozen thumb tacks.
What Men in the Trade Should Know
A good general education is essential for a show-card writer who expects to be more than merely a mechanical maker of words and letters. Those who become expert in the art need a knowledge of designing and an originality in composing effective phrases, such as can not be resisted even by those who read the cards casually.
A practical knowledge of the geometric construction of letters is fundamental, for though simple lettering may be largely mechanical work, skill must not be confined to the utilization of mechanical means alone.
A knowledge of color is an advantage to those who make sign cards. Color combinations and contrasts play an important part in producing attractive cards. As card writers are confronted by all sorts of combinations of words in inscriptions, it is necessary for them to know letter forms; to understand novelty in designing, arrangement, and artistic embellishment; and to exercise taste in harmonizing colors, so as to produce cards that will be not only neat and attractive but at the same time legible.
What Men in the Trade Do
Show-card writers make price tickets and all types of trade cards used in windows, on special sale sections, on the announcement boards of theatres, on automobiles, in cafeterias, in street cars, and wherever else the card may serve as a proper medium of advertising. The trade is carried on in different ways. Cards are sometimes made by salesmen who give only part of their time to this work. Other writers give all of their time to one firm requiring a large number of cards for its own use. Some card writers work for show-card firms and others have their own offices and fill special orders.