‘It’s Fair Time’ Ontario Foodland News, No.1. – Typesettra, 1977

The first of three full-page newspaper ads created by Case Associates in 1977 for the newly formed Foodland Ontario. This ad also introduced the Foodland Ontario symbol and appeared in the Toronto Star during the week of the annual Royal Winter Fair, Ontario’s provincial agricultural fair.
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Notes

These copy heavy ads were designed to emulate old newspapers and farmers’ almanacs. The text and illustrations are deliberately crammed tightly together giving the impression of conveying large amounts of information. To further enhance that feeling a number of different typefaces were used, breaking one of the traditional rules of advertising typography, which is to only use one or two typefaces when designing an ad. The resulting effect was not one large ad, but many small ads. All three original ads scored high in readership and the successful concept would be used for the next ten years. The first ad also earned a gold medal for typographic excellence in the tenth annual International Typographic Composition Association competition.

If these ads were to achieve the desired results the typography had to be exemplary. Creative Director Denis Case and Designer Bill Yip worked closely with Lettering Artist and Typographer Les Usherwood at Typsettra. The masthead was hand lettered to emulate old magazine covers. Even what might have appeared at first glance to be poor typography was actually carefully designed to recreate the typesetting of old newspapers. The partnership between Case and Usherwood was typical of the way typography was now being handled in many Canadian advertising agencies. The agency would be responsible for overall creative direction and preparing the brief, but the typographer was now given greater responsibility over how the goals of the brief were to be met. For roughly twenty years Typsettra was one of the most trusted advertising type shops in Toronto, and Les Usherwood earned the respect of many of the city’s leading art directors.

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Artifact Data

Article Data

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Date

1977

Title

It’s Fair Time!
Ontario Foodland News, Vol.1, No.1.

Description

Full-page newspaper ad

14 × 21.375 inches

Publisher

Credits

Studio:
Creative_Director: Denis Case
Art_Director:
Design: Bill Yip
Typography: Typsettra
Hand_Lettering: Les Usherwood
Calligraphy:
Illustration:
Art:
Author:
Writing:
Printing:
Biography:

Principal Typefaces

Display: Hand Lettering, Italian Old Style
Text: Various
Find more:

Region

Ontario

Language

English

Holding

Albert Macchiusi

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Copyright Status

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We will be posting more like this. If you have work or insights that you would be willing to share with the CTA we would like to hear from you. Please contact us to contribute.