typography can be creative article – Canadian Art, Carl Dair, 1948

Although Carl Dair designed the five pages of this article he was somewhat limited in having to use the Linotype faces the magazine used. Linotype’s version of Futura was called Spartan and was almost identical to Monotype’s 20th Century which Dair often used.

Type texture is a page from Carl Dair’s Type Talks, which had been published the same year for the E. B. Eddy Company. The periodical here and now is a small literary magazine by designer Paul Arthur and was considered quite typographically sophisticated in its day. Aujourd’hui is a modern cover design by an unnamed design student in Montreal.

The cover and double page spread, at the top of the page on the left, is from a book designed by Jean Simard. At the bottom of the page are two exercises from Carl Dair’s classes at the School of Art and Design, Art association of Montreal. Dair also mentions the organization of a Saturday morning typographic study group in Montreal. The Roloff Beny page on the right is not part of Dair’s article.

Notes

A five-page magazine article written and designed by Carl Dair where he looks at the state of typography in Canada as the country was about to move forward following the Second World War. Drawing upon his own work as well as that of students and professional designers, he shows how typographic design in Canada was changing. Dair also speaks about the problems in stimulating a new approach to design, one that is both functional and aesthetic, without slipping from the truly modern into the mere fad of the ‘modernistic’.

This article uses material from the first three booklets Dair had prepared for the E. B. Eddy Company. It should be noted that the page numbering in magazines was carried across all issues in a volume, resulting in unusually large page numbers, this issue is Number 4 in Volume V. This was also the fifth anniversary issue of Canadian Art; it is hard to imagine that in 1943, at the height of the Second World War, they would have been able to launch an art magazine. – Rod McDonald

Artifact Text:

typography can be creative.

a discussion | of design trends | in canadian | printing | by carl dair

Category
Publications
Title
Typography can be creative
Date
1948
Publication
Canadian Art, Vol. V, No 4, Spring-Summer issue
Credits
Design: Carl Dair (1912–1967)
Author: Carl Dair
Principal Typefaces
Cover: Ultra Bodoni Italic, Bodoni Bold
Display: Spartan (Linotype Futura), Linotype Janson Italic
Text: Linotype Janson
Description
Magazine article, 5pp
Size: 7.5 × 10 inches
Region
Quebec
Language
English
Images
3
Holding
Canadian Typography Archives
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typography can be creative article – Canadian Art, Carl Dair, 1948

Notes

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