Pick-up & Delivery Service mailer – Mono Lino Typesetting, John Thimidis, 1961

The use of historical types and images may seem quaint, even lazy and irrelevant to the present day. But works such as this, from Mono Lino Typesetting in 1961, speak to something that is absolutely fundamental and indispensable to all typographic design: to be legible or recognizable, design must incorporate at least some aspect of historical form. This flyer shows an assortment of types and decorative borders that were popular with designers who had, once again, rediscovered Victorian engravings and ornaments.

John Thimidis was the second Type Director at Mono Lino having replaced Leslie (Sam) Smart. This ad emphasizes the company’s ability to deliver typesetting anywhere on the continent something, it should be pointed out, that the other major Toronto type shops could also do. Nevertheless it was an important selling feature for Mono Lino as service and reliability was important to the company. Up to the day they closed their doors Mono Lino continued to set type for clients right across the country, although most of their clients outside metro Toronto were large oil companies, financial groups and the Federal government.

Walter Adamson was the son of Bill Adamson, one of the founders of the company. He joined the firm in 1944 and became President in 1958. Mono Lino was controlled by the Adamson family right up to April 1985 when, seeing the profound impact the personal computer was about to have on the typesetting business, they forced the company into voluntary receivership. Other shops soon followed and in less than ten years the typesetting trade in Canada ceased to exist. – Brian Donnelly