Keepsake – brochure, ITCA 48th Annual Convention, Toronto/New York, Carl Dair, 1967

There is a long-standing tradition among private press printers of producing ‘keepsakes’ when giving a talk or attending a conference. Keepsakes can range from utilitarian notes about the subject, to elaborate examples of design and printing, with the event sometimes being just an excuse to print.

Fittingly, this piece is a collaborative effort, Type Director Herb Graab at Mono Lino saw to the setting of Cartier on the Linofilm. Jacques Sneep, Creative Director at Cooper & Beatty handled the Inuit/Cree syllabics, which were set in what was then called Monotype Eskimo, a face that had earlier been produced under the supervision of Allan Fleming. Although we don’t know who set the TTS punched tape, both Mono Lino or Cooper & Beatty could have supplied that. The offset lithography printing is by Cape & Company, who also covered all the costs of this keepsake.

Tragically, this would be Carl Dair’s final public appearance. The next day, his lifelong heart condition caught up with him and he died on the return flight to Toronto. He was only 55.

In hindsight, this keepsake reads almost like a farewell – a quiet summation of the themes that shaped Dair’s life and work: typographic innovation, cultural inclusion, and the search for clarity across language and technology. Its modest form belies the depth of its message – a final offering from a designer who believed that type, thoughtfully used, could speak across time. – Rod McDonald

Artifact Text

KEEPSAKE of the 48th Annual Convention of the International Typographic Composition Association, Toronto, 1967

The characters on the left panel of this keepsake were designed in 1841 by the Reverend James Evans in Norway House on Hudson Bay, for the purpose of printing scriptural texts and hymns for the Cree Indians. The ingenious cleric cut wooden molds, cast types from melted down bullets and the tin lining from tea chests and, using soot from lamp chimneys to make ink, printed on a fur press. This syllabary is now standard among the Eskimos of the Canadian Arctic. The type was set by Ryerson Press in Toronto from Monotype Eskimo from a translation of the English, courtesy of the Diocese of the Arctic, Anglican Church of Canada. The English text is set in Cartier, Canada’s first roman type, which was designed for Canada’s Centenary by a Toronto typographer, Carl Dair, who wrote the text and collaborated with Herb Graab of Mono Lino Typesetting Company Limited and Jacques Sneep of Cooper & Beatty Limited in the design of the keepsake. It was set on Linofilm by Mono Lino. The pattern on the right is a photogram of the English text as it appears on perforated TTS tape. The printing is by offset lithography by Cape & Company Limited, on Laurentic Japan, 280m by Rolland Paper Company of Montreal, site of Expo 67.