Interlocking square mark – Howarth & Smith Limited, Carl Brett, 1972

Howarth & Smith opened its doors in November 1921 at 96 Peter Street, Toronto. By 1931 they had formed two companies; Howarth & Smith Monotype Limited and Howarth & Smith Linotype and moved to 118 Richmond Street West. In 1952 they moved to318 Richmond Street West and were operating as Howarth & Smith Monotype Limited. In 1972 they moved to 555 Richmond Street West. The first H&S logo, c1952, was an overlapped inline chancery cursive italic ‘h’ and ’s’ set within a triangular teardrop shape (the later and better-known teardrop logo may have been designed by either Jack Birdsall or Leslie Trevor, at Rous and Mann Printers). In 1959 H&S hired the irrepressible Carl Brett as Type Director. His job was to strengthen the creativity of their typographic services and make it worthy of the competition – specifically Cooper & Beatty. During the mid-20th century the principal strengths of the three major typesetting shops in Toronto were fairly well-known to their clients; Cooper & Beatty stood out for its creativity and design, Mono Lino was known for its service and reliability and Howarth & Smith focused on precision. Therefore it was no surprise when in the 1970s H&S became involved in the development and implementation of the barcode in Canada. – Brian Donnelly

Carl Brett, FGDC, from GDC [now DesCan] website

Carl Brett was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1928 and educated there at the Crawford School of Art. Arriving in Canada in 1954, he began working as a typographer and designer at Vickers & Benson Advertising under art director Stanley Furnival. When Allan Fleming's influential typography at Cooper & Beatty began to garner attention, rival type house Howarth & Smith hired Brett in 1959 to strengthen the creativity of their typography service and make it worthy of the competition. Gordon Howarth gave Brett carte blanche, and for ten years they set new standards in visual thinking in type, particularly for advertising. He was a bane to the typesetters with his insistence on exactitude and always getting them to stretch themselves and set new standards.