Instant Lettering – Letraset Canada, unknown, 1964

Notes

The first wide-spread method that placed type in the hands of people outside the type trade was dry-transfer lettering. Arguably, the most popular dry-transfer company in the world was the British based company Letraset that was founded in 1959. Today it is hard to imagine just how revolutionary dry-transfer was. Many people who had never set, or bought, type were suddenly able to produce their own ads and posters. For most the Letraset catalogue was also their first type book. Typefaces such as Karl-Erik Forsberg’s 1951 Berling, mentioned in this ad, were very popular in dry-transfer although not necessarily in the traditional type shops. The first original Letraset type design was Compacta designed in 1963 by Frederick Lambert. Compacta became part of the ‘look’ of swinging Britain in the 1960s. Letraset, like all dry-transfer products, was printed by the silk-screen process. The company also produced custom logo sheets, often in colour, for many corporations and organisations in Canada. Like traditional typesetting, Letraset disappeared in the digital revolution of the 1980s.

This ad is obviously an early one for the company and judging from the poor execution was likely produced internally. Letters are misaligned and broken, a charge repeatedly levelled at all dry-transfer products. Letraset learned their lesson for they would soon become one of the leading style setters in Canada and all their future advertising would be very professional. – Rod McDonald