Ontario Foodland full-page newspaper ad, Number 1, 1977

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.