You Are Now Standing In The Ashtray – notice, Wil Hudson, 1968

Notice on the door to Wil Hudson’s print shop at 323 Cambie Street in Vancouver. Even after the release of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking in 1964, smoking remained socially acceptable in North America. By the late 1960s, many non-smokers were still hesitant to ask others not to smoke. So in 1968, it was still somewhat shocking for a smoker to be told outright that they could not smoke – perhaps even more so when the message was delivered in such a forceful typeface.

This notice is a ‘repro proof,’ the kind of proof that type shops supplied to their customers. Only printers received actual metal type – everyone else received printed proofs. The typesetter would compose the type and ‘pull’ (print) proofs by hand on smooth, bright white paper, usually using a Vandercook proofing press.

Across the top and bottom of the proofs (and sometimes along the sides) were ‘bearers’ – metal bars that held the type firmly in place. These bearers were trimmed from the printed proof when the type was assembled into the final job. Hudson included information about the job, along with his name and the date, within the bearer. While this was a logical and elegant way to track job details, it was somewhat impractical for larger shops. Hand-setting that much information was time-consuming, and for smaller jobs, it could take longer to set the type for the bearer than for the job itself. Typesetting shops used various methods for identifying proofs, ranging from pre-printed or rubber-stamped forms to the compositor simply jotting down the details by hand on the proof.
– Rod McDonald

Artifact Text

You Are Now Standing
In The Ashtray —
Discard Cigarettes
 BEFORE Entering!