The lost art of lettering poster – Typsettra, 1968

A small broadside announcing the formation of the Toronto advertising typography shop Typsettra. Founded in 1968 by Les Usherwood and Dave Thomason, two talented lettering artists who met when they were working at Art & Design Studio (ADS). After trying, unsuccessfully, to convince their employers at ADS that the future was in photo type they decided to go out on their own. They bought a VGC Photo-Typositor and a handful of fonts and set up shop on Merton Street in mid-town Toronto. At first they only offered custom headline setting and hand lettering. They were good and weren’t afraid of the new photo technology. They also understood the business and knew how to communicate to agency creatives. Soon a small group of talented art directors, looking to create radical new advertising, began to take notice. Even the way they worked with art directors was different, now it was closer to a partnership instead of the old client/supplier relationship. They all were breaking new ground.

But what really caught the attention of those art directors was the almost casual mention that Dave and Les had already created 15 new alphabets – not available anywhere else in the world. And, if an art director couldn’t find the right font, they would just create one for them. For anyone in the high pressure world of advertising that was an astonishing offer. Although it was not well known, custom photo lettering alphabets had been around for close to thirty years, but the field of photo lettering was so closely connected with the typesetting trade that for most people in the business the concept of creating a custom font was almost unthinkable. Even after it had become relatively easy to make fonts most of the people in the trade still couldn’t entertain the thought. But, Les and Dave were not carrying the psychological baggage that the old trade typesetters were. They were quite comfortable designing a new alphabet and then turning it into a headline font overnight.

The older and much larger typesetting companies were hampered in other ways. They had enormous capital invested in expensive typesetting equipment, which occupied a lot of real estate. On top of that they also had large numbers of highly-paid skilled union employees who operated that equipment. Les and Dave were able to start Typsettra for a fraction of what it would have cost the big shops to retool. The time was right and they worked hard. For the next twenty-five years Typsettra was arguably the country’s leading advertising type shop.

In 1975 Dave Thomason left the partnership, although he continued to do lettering for the shop on a freelance basis. Unquestionably, the driving force behind Typsettra had always been Les Usherwood. Now, under his direction they would go on to become the first company to design and market Canadian-made typefaces throughout the world.

Usherwood’s sudden and untimely death in 1983 occurred just as digital technology was about to be launched on a largely unsuspecting world. The combination of losing Usherwood and the introduction of a radically new technology proved to be too much and in the early 1990s Typsettra was sold to Trigraph Ltd. but they too would not survive for long.

Artifact Text

The lost art of lettering

OR: I TELL MY KIDS I PLAY PIANO IN A CAT HOUSE

Here’s the scene: you are an Art Director in a Leading Advertising Agency of Great Creative Renown. You are working on a Big Campaign. A copywriter has shown you a Promising Headline. After a brief interval, during which you gently point out to him the obvious flaws, and the ways in which it can be improved, you start your masterpiece. For the headline (now immeasurably better) you want some type that will be distinctive, eye-catching, evocative, compelling, tasteful, esthetic, unique and around two bucks and change per word.

You flip – casually at first, and then frantically – through the catalogues of certain Photo Houses who shall Be Nameless. Reluctantly arriving at a choice, you order your headline. When it arrives, is it distinctive, eye-catching, evocative and so on? Is it spaced properly with an eye to the feeling of the words, the nature of the type style, the sense of the message? Or does it have ‘bounces’, and maybe a letter just a little out of vertical (what’s one letter between friends?)

Is it as good as you hoped it would be? Is it really?

We think that the graphic arts business in this town today has reached a very high peak of quality. We think that there has never been a time when so much well-designed, imaginative, just plain good stuff has been coming off the drawing board.

But we also think that there’s one thing missing: a service which offers the ultimate in photo-headlines, with quality and flair that is compatible with the sort of work you guys are doing. A service where you don’t get bounces, and you don’t get careless spacing, or take-it-or-leave-it setting, or headlines that aren’t right up to the mark, or tired old faces that have been around and around and around.

We are Typsettra … Dave Thomason and Les Usherwood. For quick identification, let’s just say that Usherwood is the guy apparently standing in a hole, which by a process of elimination leaves Thomason as the guy with the mustache. A lot of you may know us; we’ve been around this town for quite a few years now. We’re both lettering men, and both very concerned about the state of typography today.

To start off this new service, we’ve designed 15 completely new alphabets that are being offered nowhere else in the world. In addition we’ve got a number of standards (just the best ones) from the Typositor line. And finally, if you really want to lay the bread on us, we’ll design you a special alphabet of your own.

We really are real people. You can pick up the phone and call 481–4591 or 481–8471 and talk to either of us, and ask us questions, or advice or prices, or call us in for consultation.

One more thing. If you received this mailer, then you are on the list for our catalogue, which we’ll be sending out in a few days. But if you want to make really sure you get one, call us and leave your name. Remember, if a short guy answers, that’s Les. Otherwise, it’s Dave.

Typesettra / phone 481–4591 / 482–8471

The 15 original Typsettra alphabets, 1968

1) Extension
2) Extension Condensed
3) Flange
4) Grenville
5) Grenville Condensed
6) Kabel Moderna
7) Braydon Bold
8) Carnaby
9) Caslon Graphique
10) Caslon Graphique Condensed
11) Graphis Bold
12) Graphis Extra Bold
13) Omega Bold
14) Statesman
15) Waverly Extra Bold

We are working on many Typsettra stories, including stories about the excellent lettering artists who worked there. We are also looking at the remarkable font making abilities of Albert Macchiusi who, as much as anyone, made it possible for Typsettra to offer such high quality fonts. And, of course, we will also have stories of the agency art directors who were the reason the company existed in the first place.