Introducing Loudoun Homes – newspaper ad, Carl Brett, c1955

Carl Brett came to Canada in 1954, having studied in Cork, Ireland, and then freelancing in Dublin. Art Director Stanley Furnival hired him at the Toronto advertising agency Vickers & Benson, which Brett remembered as a partnership between two painters who could at least see the quality of the typography in his work. In an aside, Brett also noted that, outside of a few firms such as Mono Lino, Cooper & Beatty and Howarth & Smith, it could be hard to get simple, adequate typesetting in Toronto.

This piece for Loudoun Homes is clean and well structured, with clear, unadorned architectural renderings and a balanced use of white space. The illustrated carved frame and gothic letters of the logo contrast, somewhat jarringly, with the modern feel of both the ad and the houses themselves, in a muted version of the romantic and anachronistic clichés that were so predominant in 1950s marketing.

The ad was the first Brett was allowed to design and direct himself, and it garnered praise from none other than Allan Fleming. Brett noted that at that time he was influenced by the professionalism of typographers such as Frank Davies, John Gibson, Frank Newfeld and Sam Smart, the four co-founders, in 1956, of the Typographic Designers of Canada. – Brian Donnelly