Title

The value of woodcuts.

Author

Author not identified

Details

The Australasian Ironmonger, vol. iv., no.3, March 1889, p.111.

Publication date

March 1889

Type

Article

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

The article recomends that producers of products use woodcuts to help sell their products, as is done in America.

Full text

THE VALUE OF WOOD CUTS
When our journal was established less than three years ago, we had to justify our existence, to show the trade that there was a want unfilled, and to indicate many things that the absence of means of journalistic communications had left latent.

One lesson we wish to impress upon all who are interested in the manufacture or sale of special goods, and that is the Value of Wood cuts or Pictures. A glance through our advertising pages is instructive in this connection. British and American advertisements consist chiefly of wood cuts with lines of descriptive text. Australian advertisements, however, consist almost entirely of type. There is no comparison in effectiveness between the two classes. The reason is that a wood cut or picture conveys to the mind at a single glance far more than the cleverest and longest description will. The man who puts a picture in his advertisement knows that every one who sees it for a tenth of a second will carry away some definite idea of what he has to sell. The man who trusts merely to type knows that his advertisement must be read before any idea will reach the brain of any one. Read it will be, by everyone who masters his business sufficiently to see that it is done properly; those who do not read advertisements are generally the men whose time is too much taken up with routine to be able to look out for new sources of profit. But this is by the way.

Our literary pages for the last few months, while the reports of the Exhibition have been appearing, have taught the same lesson. Where the exhibitor has had the wisdom to provide blocks for the use of our reporters, the notice of his exhibit has been far more attractive to the general reader.

We therefore strongly recommend everyone who has new goods for sale, and new inventions to exploit, or who makes special goods, to adopt the speediest and surest means of familiarising the public with their merits. Make a picture of each article – and advertise it. Where the goods are really new, and seem of sufficient interest to the trade, we are always willing to find space for a suitable illustration in our literary pages.
In view of the practice of many journals which consider that nothing is interesting which does not bring an immediate cash return, it may be necessary to say that we make no charge for such notices.

We are convinced that we are giving sound and profitable advice in recommending our readers to make greater use of the engraver’s art.

[The Australasian Ironmonger, vol. iv., no.3, March 1889, p.111.]
 

Last Updated

13 Aug 2012