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Created to introduce Canadians to the wide-ranging responsibilities of the newly formed Department of Supply and Services, this brochure presents the federal government’s ‘housekeeper extraordinary’, the agency responsible for everything from procurement and materiel management to payments, accounting, and administration. The inner pages describe the scale and scope of the operation: buying billions of dollars’ worth of goods each year, issuing over 100 million cheques, and providing financial and logistical services that keep the machinery of government running. It outlines the two core divisions, Supply Administration and Services Administration, and the vital national infrastructure behind them: regional offices, production facilities, computing centres, and advisory bureaux that together ensured efficiency and accountability across departments.

Visually, the piece is a confident example of federal design in the early 1970s. The cover features a bold symbol, four diagonally pointing arrows arranged within a square composition, printed in red and black inks. Set entirely in Helvetica, the official typeface of the Government of Canada, the typography is clean, rational, and understated, supporting a message of order and modernity. Inside, the pages are enlivened with a series of expressive, hand-rendered marker illustrations, dynamic and unmistakably of their time, capturing both the human and industrial aspects of Canada’s expanding administrative landscape. Together, the elements balance precision and warmth, communicating not only efficiency and scale, but the optimism and energy of a government embracing modern design as a tool of public communication.

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