Carl Dair
Carl Dair is one of Canada’s preeminent designers and he left a lasting legacy as a teacher, type designer, design practitioner, and author. Even though he was primarily a self-taught designer, Dair would emerge to win international recognition and codify visual design principles still relevant today.[1]
Biography
Dair was born in Welland, Ontario, on February 1912. Dair’s first job as an 18 year old was creating advertising and layouts for the Stratford Beacon-Herald.[1] He would move on to form a partnership with Henry Eveleigh and set-up the Dair-Eveleigh Studio from 1947-51 in Montréal, Quebec. He worked principally as a freelance designer on a variety of jobs from department store art director to the typographic director for the National Film board of Canada (1945).[1]
With the publication of Designing with Type in 1952, revised and republished in 1967, he demonstrated a deep understanding of how to design using primarily type and formal design principles. He outlined visual principles of harmony and contrast codifying seven kinds of typographic contrast: size, weight, structure, form, texture, colour, and direction. “Contrast is the opposite of concord; it is based on a unity of differences.”[2] "Designing with Type" became the first Canadian book to receive the Book of the Year award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).[3]. It was republished by the University of Toronto Press (First Edition) in 2000.
The period from 1956-57 was extremely productive for Dair when he received the RSC fellowship to study type design and manufacture in the Netherlands.[1] During this period he had the opportunity to study metal type and hand-punching at Enschedé Foundry in Haarlem, Netherlands, where he created a silent film called Gravers and Files documenting “one of the last great punchcutters", P. H. Radisch, demonstrating his craft—it is perhaps the only such film in existence”.[4] His experiences at Enschedé were also a formative influence in the typeface Dair later created called Cartier.[4]
Cartier was commissioned and released for Canada’s 1967 centenary celebrations. The original design was based on lettering and had some failings as a typeface until it was sensitively adjusted by Rod McDonald, which was released in 2000.[5] Cartier can be identified as an attempt to create a regional typeface for Canada. “It is now widely used and appears to have achieved the status of an identifiable national type.”[6]
Through his practice, teaching, and writing, Dair built an international reputation and received a number of awards.[1] In 1959 he was awarded the silver medal at the Internationale Buchkunst-Austellung in Leipzig, East Germany. In 1962, The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts awarded him its Arts Medal. In 1967 he became a fellow in the Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC).
Carl Dair passed away on the flight from New York City to Toronto on September 28th, 1967.[1]
the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University honors Dair’s contribution to design in Canada with the Carl Dair Memorial Scholarship. A large collection of Dair’s work can be seen on Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art website.
Quotes
Letters are like molecules when they combine with one another. (Dair, 1967)
Typographical rhythm is no less a rhythm because it exists only in space and is perceived instantaneously. (Dair, 1967)
Publications
Dair, C. Designing with type. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, (1952; 2nd ed 1967)
A Typographic Quest, 6 pamphlets published by Westvaco Papers in the 1960s
Dair, C. (Director). (1957). Gravers and Files [Film].
References
- ^ a b c d e f Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC). (2007, November 17). Gdc fellows: 1960 recipients. Retrieved from http://www.gdc.net/about/fellows/articles67.php
- ^ Dair, C. Designing with type. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967
- ^ University of Toronto Press (Retrieved August 3, 2011) "Timeline." http://www.utpress.utoronto.ca/noflash.html
- ^ a b The Devil's Artisan. (2008). A rogue's gallery of the canadian book and printing arts: carl dair. Retrieved from http://devilsartisan.porcupinesquill.ca/rogues_gallery_dair.html
- ^ Fonts.com (2011). Cartier. Retrieved from http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/hiddengems/cartier.htm
- ^ Lewis, L. (2011). The canadian encyclopedia/the encyclopedia of music in canada: dair, carl. Retrieved from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0002105
External links
- [1] Typography Exhibits Best of Canadian Printing
- [2] Typographic Contrast and the Web
- [3] AIGA Design Archives
- [4] Cartier typeface (Wikipedia)
- [5] Haley, A. (2006, February). Rod McDonald, Canada's Typographer Laureate. Step Inside Design article
- [6] Berry, J. (2003, Jully 28). Dot-font: Seven Principles of Typographic Contrast. Via CreativePro.com
- [7] Carl Dair Fonds. Massey College, Toronto (MS Word doc)
Examples of Work
- [8] Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art: The Canadian Art Database
- [9] Stamp Designs at the Library and Archives Canada