The Art of the Printer – E. B. Eddy Paper Company, Carl Dair, 1956

The cover of The Art of the Printer reaches back to the earliest days of printing and lettering. Dair uses classic Roman letter shapes and construction principals to remind us that typography has always been governed by rules.

Each spread in The Art of the Printer has a foldout in which one side of the page cleverly works for two different sections. In this spread Dair uses a few of his pages that had been chosen for Liber Librorum that was held in Stockholm in 1955. He was the only Canadian designer invited to submit, his entry is the one in the lower left.

Notes

The Art of the Printer is the fifth and last booklet in the series on type and paper that Carl Dair produced for The E. B. Eddy Company. Here Dair brings everything back to the printer, at that time the person most responsible for making it all happen. The printer would soon be displaced by the graphic designer.

1956 was a busy year for Dair, he moved to Holland to begin six-months studying cutting metal type at the renowned type foundry Enschedé, in Haarlem. It was the first step in his eleven-year journey developing Cartier, Canada’s first Latin text type. 1956 also saw the formation of the Society of Typographic Designers of Canada (TDC), which would eventually become the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC). – Rod McDonald

Artifact Text:

“A piece of printed matter is a salesman for the organization that produces it. Neatness of appearance, the manner of enlisting attention and sustaining interest, the clear attractive presentation of facts and, finally, those individual characteristics which make up personality — all of these things are just as important in the presentation of printed material as they are in choosing salesmen”.

Category
Publications
Title
The Art of the Printer
Date
1956
Client
The E. B. Eddy Company
Credits
Design: Carl Dair (1912–1967)
Author: Carl Dair
Principal Typefaces
Cover: Augustea Roman, hand-lettered ‘A’
Text: Times New Roman, various
Description
Two-colour booklet, 16 pp (with gate folds)
Size: 5.75 × 8.75 inches
Region
Ontario
Language
English
Images
2
Holding
Canadian Typography Archives
Artifact copyright: CTA was unable to clarify rights but welcomes contact from rightsholders to resolve permissions, if required, and will remove digitized works at the rightsholder’s request (rightsholders may contact CTA at copyright@canadiantypography.ca). CTA makes digitized works available for education and research. Responsibility for any use rests with the user.
Notes copyright: Notes accompanying artifacts are licenced under Creative Commons licensing CCbyNC which allows for non-commercial use with attribute.

Also in this series:

Design for Printing – E.B. Eddy Paper Company, Carl Dair, 1947

Type Talks – E. B. Eddy Paper Company, Carl Dair, 1948

Spacing, E.B. Eddy Paper Company, Carl Dair, 1954

Type & Paper – E. B. Eddy Paper Company, Carl Dair, 1946

You might also like:

Design with Type (1st edition) – Carl Dair, 1952

If you have any information about this work or those who contributed to it, or about any similar work that you would be willing to share, we invite you to contact us.

Please contact us at: info@canadiantypography.ca

⚠️ Do you have something to add? Did we get something wrong? Did we miss crediting someone? Please Submit an Edit to suggest a correction, or add to this artifact. Your contribution is important to us. Thank you in advance.