Eh to Zed? Some contend that up here in the great, far-flung, white-space reaches of our strong-and-free O Canada we have our own true-North beginnings, ligatures and ends. We are a lettered people, but admittedly, attempting a... more
Eh to Zed? Some contend that up here in the great, far-flung, white-space reaches of our strong-and-free O Canada we have our own true-North beginnings, ligatures and ends.
We are a lettered people, but admittedly, attempting a definitive ‘Canadian type issue’ may have been an impossible idea. This journal (at long last) in your hands is a manifest attempt at same, even if it has had to skim past many a type-A typographer between Antigonish and Abbotsford.
Typecasting Canada, Canadians, and their ilk is also no easy thing. In this issue you’ll encounter a variety of Canucks and their types, and you’ll read about others (past and present) who have left their imprint on our typology and communications landscape. Good type has always had to do with the use of space, a rare commodity in much of the crowded world, yet something we have in abundance up here. Arguably, there’s an aesthetic that grows in the vast spaces that separate Canadians (we can claim some of the widest character spacing on the planet) across the breadth of our five time zones.
What you’ll discover in these pages is only the tip of the iceberg, as regards typographis canadensis—a look at Luc Devroye’s extensive website at http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html will bring you to a remarkable online collection of information and links—though you’ll be on your own in sorting the bona fide types from the ‘rasterbaters and pixel-jockies,’ as one cynical typophile labels the under-thirtysomething set.
The purpose of this journal is to provide a forum to encourage dialogue, to promote excellence in design and visual communication, and to help record the history and development of graphic design in Canada. To this end, we owe special thanks to this issue’s eloquent, talented (and patient) contributors: Matt Warburton, FGDC in Vancouver for his recollections (and production coordination); Nick Shinn, R.G.D., MGDC in Toronto for his insightful articles and the supply of unique fonts; Val Fullard for her piece on Mambo; maritimer Rod M c Donald for the article and font Cartier Book; Walter Jungkind, FGDC, of Edmonton for his scholarly call for a new alphabet to suit these times; Richard Hunt for his words of wisdom regarding scalability; the various contributors to the call for ‘character spaces;’ our production sponsors, StoraEnso, Blanchette and Pacific Bindery; book designer Zab (E.A. Hobart, MGDC) for the oh-so-apt Big-O cover; and to my Circle colleague Susan McWatt FitzGerald, MGDC for this publication’s design and her review of Canadian Robert Bringhurst’s The Solid Form of Language and The Elements of Typographic Style.
Much of this issue is set in Goodchild and Brown by Nick Shinn, R.G.D., MGDC. Les’ eponymous Usherwood, and Cartier Book by Rod M c Donald also make appearances. Let’s face it, this type was made for you and me….
Robert L. Peters
We are a lettered people, but admittedly, attempting a definitive ‘Canadian type issue’ may have been an impossible idea. This journal (at long last) in your hands is a manifest attempt at same, even if it has had to skim past many a type-A typographer between Antigonish and Abbotsford.
Typecasting Canada, Canadians, and their ilk is also no easy thing. In this issue you’ll encounter a variety of Canucks and their types, and you’ll read about others (past and present) who have left their imprint on our typology and communications landscape. Good type has always had to do with the use of space, a rare commodity in much of the crowded world, yet something we have in abundance up here. Arguably, there’s an aesthetic that grows in the vast spaces that separate Canadians (we can claim some of the widest character spacing on the planet) across the breadth of our five time zones.
What you’ll discover in these pages is only the tip of the iceberg, as regards typographis canadensis—a look at Luc Devroye’s extensive website at http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html will bring you to a remarkable online collection of information and links—though you’ll be on your own in sorting the bona fide types from the ‘rasterbaters and pixel-jockies,’ as one cynical typophile labels the under-thirtysomething set.
The purpose of this journal is to provide a forum to encourage dialogue, to promote excellence in design and visual communication, and to help record the history and development of graphic design in Canada. To this end, we owe special thanks to this issue’s eloquent, talented (and patient) contributors: Matt Warburton, FGDC in Vancouver for his recollections (and production coordination); Nick Shinn, R.G.D., MGDC in Toronto for his insightful articles and the supply of unique fonts; Val Fullard for her piece on Mambo; maritimer Rod M c Donald for the article and font Cartier Book; Walter Jungkind, FGDC, of Edmonton for his scholarly call for a new alphabet to suit these times; Richard Hunt for his words of wisdom regarding scalability; the various contributors to the call for ‘character spaces;’ our production sponsors, StoraEnso, Blanchette and Pacific Bindery; book designer Zab (E.A. Hobart, MGDC) for the oh-so-apt Big-O cover; and to my Circle colleague Susan McWatt FitzGerald, MGDC for this publication’s design and her review of Canadian Robert Bringhurst’s The Solid Form of Language and The Elements of Typographic Style.
Much of this issue is set in Goodchild and Brown by Nick Shinn, R.G.D., MGDC. Les’ eponymous Usherwood, and Cartier Book by Rod M c Donald also make appearances. Let’s face it, this type was made for you and me….
Robert L. Peters
