Type Talks – E. B. Eddy Paper Company, Carl Dair, 1948

For the cover of Type Talks Carl Dair uses a collection of jumbled letterforms to alert the reader to the idea that they will now have to look at typefaces in a different way. Note the brush written E/D in the lower left corner of the red block. Dair rarely signed his work but during the partnership with the illustrator Henry Eveleigh he often signed work that was produced by the studio.

A double page spread from Type Talks showing five basic classifications of Latin typefaces. Dair’s classifying of both Sans Serif and Slab Serif simply as ‘contemporary’ indicates just how early this was in the process of classifying of typefaces. It would be another six years before the French typographer Maximilien Vox developed the first systematic arrangement of nine basic type classifications.

Notes

Between May 1946 and April 1947 Carl Dair published twelve monthly articles called ‘Type Talks’ for the magazine Printing Review of Canada. Those articles were very popular and in 1948 he combined them to make the third booklet in the series on type and paper for The E. B. Eddy Company. The period immediately following the Second World War was a dynamic one for Canada. Thousands of soldiers were returning to civilian life and the economy was surging forward. People were looking towards a bigger and hopefully better future, all they needed were the right tools. In this 24 page booklet Dair provides a solid foundation for the proper understanding of both typefaces and typography. Starting with the basic classification of typefaces, he goes on to carefully explain the meaning of common typographic terms such as texture, spacing, harmony, contrast and copy-fitting. Like Type & Paper, the first booklet in the series, Type Talks was soon republished.

Artifact Text

INTRODUCTION
Excellence of typography is the one method by which a printer can achieve excellence in the graphic arts; it is at once the most noticeable feature of his work and the hallmark of his craftsmanship. Most standard works on typography are hard to come by; they are either out of print, out of date, or written in other than the English language. When Printing Review of Canada published the series of Type Talks by Carl Dair, the requests that were made for their publication in booklet form gave evidence that they filled a need. The company was very glad to undertake this project as a part of our efforts to provide printers with aids to better and more effective printing. We therefore commissioned the author to prepare his material in a form which would be complete and yet convenient for reference by printers, advertising agencies and printing buyers. This edition of Type Talks is the result; we hope it will prove a valuable and useful addition to your graphic arts library. We acknowledge our indebtedness to Printing Review of Canada for permission to use the material, to the author for preparing this presentation, and to those typefounders who so generously cooperated in supplying lines of their type faces.

Items in this Series

Type & Paper – E. B. Eddy Paper Company, Carl Dair, 1946

Two-colour, 16 pp. saddle stitched booklet

Design for Printing – E. B. Eddy Paper Company, Carl Dair, 1947

Two-colour booklet, 18 pp (including inside covers)