A Typographic Quest, Number 1
Booklet
Carl Dair
1964
A Typographic Quest, Number 2, Display Types – booklet, Westvaco, Carl Dair, 1965
For the second issue, Dair juxtaposes a photograph of the Roman capitals from the base of Trajan’s Column (AD 113) with a tightly spaced contemporary sans serif. Together, they span nearly two millennia of display lettering. He then treats the title as if it were text, setting it in Univers 65 (bold), all lowercase.
The decorative initials once used to mark new paragraphs in dense Blackletter texts gradually evolved into the bold display types of the 19th century. With only two images Dair shows how a few letters, originally meant to guide the reader, came to dominate the page – each line seemingly designed to shout louder than the next.
Dair introduces the concept of the ‘typographic image’ – a composition in which the overall form is shaped by type – but never forced. The most effective results, he suggests, appear inevitable, as if the image had simply grown out of the letterforms themselves.
Notes
After examining the fundamentals of typography in the first issue of A Typographic Quest, it was perhaps only natural that Carl Dair should focus on display types in the second. Display faces are often the first typefaces people encounter, especially in advertising. Their primary role is to attract attention – a quality that has little place in text faces. This distinction also explains why, in the early years of advertising, many headlines were hand lettered.
Dair begins by asking what makes a typeface a display face: is it size, ornamentation, contrast – or something else? Starting with the decorative initials used to mark new paragraphs in a 15th-century German Blackletter setting, he traces the evolution of these letters into the exuberant, often excessive, display types of the 19th century. The rise of advertising during that period drove this explosion of ornate and attention-grabbing forms.
He goes on to explore several key topics: the use of text faces for display, the creation of typographic ‘images’, and the broader question of what makes a piece of display typography appropriate or effective. In just 28 pages, Dair delivers what may be one of the clearest and most thoughtful introductions to display types ever written. – Rod McDonald
Artifact Text
Typographic Display (excerpt from page 1)
All printed matter requires a focal point which marks the beginnings of the message. This unit, whether it be the quiet title page of a book or a screaming headline in a sale advertisement, is considered by the printer and typographer to be the ‘display’ matter. Obviously, each piece of text is an individual problem, and the more original the solution of the display, the more effective it will be. However, there are certain techniques which are valid for all types of display, and this second edition of A Typographic Quest undertakes to analyze these various techniques in the hopes that it will provide a stimulus to the better use of type for display.
Items in this Collection
A Typographic Quest, Number 2, Display Types
Booklet
Carl Dair
1965
A Typographic Quest, Number 3, Type to be Read
Booklet
Carl Dair
1965
A Typographic Quest, Number 4, The Organization of Space
Booklet
Carl Dair
1966
A Typographic Quest, Number 5, Typographic Contrast
Booklet
Carl Dair
1967
A Typographic Quest, Number 6, Etcetera
Booklet
Carl Dair
1968
Title: Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor
Media format description
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Artifact
Article Data
Category
Date
1965
Title
A Typographic Quest, Number 2, Display Types
Description
Booklet
28 pp
5.25 × 9 inches
Credits
Principal Typefaces
Cover: Univers Bold, hand lettered ‘Q’ and ‘2’
Text: Caledonia, Akzidenz Grotesk, various
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Region
Ontario / West Virginia
Language
English
Holding
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Artifact copyright
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Notes copyright
Accompanying notes are licensed under Creative Commons licensing CCbyNC which allows for non-commercial use with attribute.
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