A Typographic Quest, Number 1 – booklet, Westvaco, Carl Dair, 1964

Published in 1964, A Typographic Quest launched a new series from the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company (Westvaco) that was created and designed by Carl Dair. The title of this first booklet also served as the name for the series – an apt phrase for Dair’s own career spent in pursuit of clarity, contrast, and typographic expression. Replacing Bradbury Thompson, who had previously led Westvaco’s Inspirations for Printers series, Dair brought a distinctively Canadian voice to the task.

Within three short years, Dair wrote and designed six informative booklets on typography which, like the five booklets he had earlier produced for the E. B. Eddy Paper Company, would also be used as textbooks. Working for a much larger company brought with it a correspondingly larger budget that allowed Dair to significantly reprise his role as a typographic design educator.

Drawing on his background in both printing and design education, he introduced key ideas that had appeared in both the E. B. Eddy booklets and the first edition of Design with Type (1952). Yet the tone here is more invitational than instructional. In the Westvaco series, Dair expanded his views on typography, which had a noticeable effect on the second edition of Design with Type (1967). A Typographic Quest affirms Dair’s belief that good design is the essential unifying element in any successful printed piece – a message he delivers with both restraint and conviction. – Rod McDonald

Artifact Text

From Gothic to Grotesk (excerpt from page 11)
When the first printers cut their letters in metal, they copied the letters of the manuscript writers, the pointed Gothic letter in use north of the Alps, and the softer, rounded roman letter south of the Alps. They used these letters for the simple reason that these were the forms which people were used to reading. In the 500 years since, there has been no basic change in the form of the letter; the requirements of legibility through conforming to reading habits has inhibited such changes. But modifications of weight and structure have crept in, responding to improvements in printing techniques and the refinement of the printing surface of paper. In this evolution, there are six major identifiable stages, resulting in six major type families. Knowing these basic families is fundamental to the typographic art; this booklet discusses the roman letter from the fifteenth century to the latest contemporary form.