The Berry House

Planning life’s most delightful moments!

Iconic Hotel Stationery of Yesteryear

The one challenge of being a family of five? When traveling, you aren’t a large enough party for two hotel rooms but you’re way too crammed for one. So which route did the Berry family chose? The latter. Two double beds to accommodate our five sleepy heads. En route from St. Louis to the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone to San Antonio, boy did we hit the hotels motels during our summer road trip travels. Nothing fancy – think Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson – but I do recall that each time we walked into a room, I had to open all the drawers and inventory the paper offerings. Maybe this was because there typically wasn’t a mini bar to investigate? But I’m pretty sure it was my love of stationery. And at some point in my travels I became a collector of postcards which means I packed stamps in my fanny pack.

Recently, our copywriter Meg Zelenovich found a bit of history involving hotel stationery of yesteryear. In 1922, it appears that Physicist Albert Einstein penned some theories on happiness using stationery from the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The notes read: “A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.” The second note, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

At CBP, we decided to celebrate hotel stationery throughout the ages by creating a personalized stationery collection inspired by iconic hotels around the world. Our collection includes designs based on Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, The Drake in Chicago, Hotel Metropol in Valencia, the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, Hotel Dixie in New York City, and The Park in Barcelona. Each of these prominent hotels has distinct branding with compelling typography, colors and icons, giving us plenty to work with in designing quintessential personalized stationery sets.

Feeling inspired to plan a trip to an iconic hotel? Perhaps during your next hotel stay, you’ll be sure to take note of the stationery offerings in the desk and keep a notecard as a souvenir or send a postcard to a friend. Do you have a favorite hotel? Let us know in our most recent Instagram post!