‘dot on the i’ ad – Howarth & Smith Monotype, Carl Brett, 1959

Like the letterforms they worked with, graphic design created by typographers, was both simple and powerful. After the Second World War the major typesetting shops went to great lengths to be seen as typographers – not just typesetters. The leading type shops saw themselves as working partners with designers, printers and, most especially, advertising agencies. Within ten years the agencies would also come to embrace that thinking far more than could have been imagined in the 1950s.

The H&S mark and the words ‘creative typographers’ are not centered on the stem of the ‘i’; this brings an element of tension to the otherwise strongly centered ad. For optical reasons, the dot on the ‘i’, in most typefaces, is always placed slightly to the right of the stem. This simple ad demonstrates the care and understanding that Howarth & Smith brought to all their typesetting and typography which was now in the hands of the talented Carl Brett who had recently been hired as Type Director.