A Typographic Quest, Number 6, Etcetera – booklet, Westvaco, Carl Dair, 1968

Edition number six, Etcetera, is the final entry in A Typographic Quest, published a few months after Carl Dair’s untimely death in September 1967. The word ‘etcetera’ – meaning ‘and the rest’ – aptly describes a booklet focused on the small but crucial tasks that make up a typographer’s daily practice. Dair referred to these as ‘joe jobs’, the never-ending details that, when handled properly, elevate a piece from amateur to professional.

As important as those details may be, Dair goes a step further. He reminds readers that if the original idea isn’t working, no amount of finessing will save it. Don’t waste time trying to fix a flawed concept – either rethink it or abandon it altogether. What he doesn’t say, but implies, is that recognizing a weak idea may be one of the hardest lessons to learn.

Etcetera is less a conclusion than a quiet acknowledgment of the unfinished, ongoing nature of design work. Fittingly, the series ends not with a flourish, but with the humility of craft. – Rod McDonald

Artifact Text

Typography is an art which challenges the designer and craftsman at many levels. It challenges him to achieve unusual ideas, to structure a page with the skill of an architect, to use his types with the drama of a showman, to weave his text with the skill of an artisan of tapestry. These are the kinds of challenges that put zest into typographic design and earn plaudits for its most successful innovators. However, some of the greatest typographic challenges today involve minor problems, the solutions for which might pass unnoticed. They are fussy little problems of setting tables and lists of names, of business forms and calendars, the intricate little “joe jobs” that can try the patience. This sixth issue of A Typographic Quest offers you a handful of solutions.