Hermann Zapf – exhibition poster, Cooper & Beatty, Allan Fleming, 1961

Hermann Zapf, the renowned German type designer and calligrapher, visited Toronto and Cooper & Beatty three times during the 1960s. His first visit, in 1961, was for an exhibition of his work in North America, organized by the Contemporary Arts Center and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Seizing this opportunity, Cooper & Beatty hosted the only Canadian presentation of Zapf’s work in their offices.

This broadside was created for his 1961 visit. Design Director Allan Fleming chose the exquisite hand-set foundry type version of Palatino – Zapf’s first major typeface, released by Linotype in 1949. To ensure the typefaces were displayed at their finest, Fleming worked closely with both the writer and the compositor, refining any awkward line breaks.

The skilled compositors at Cooper & Beatty were adept at handling intricate typographic details, such as kerning tricky letter combinations like the ‘Z’ and ‘a’ in Zapf’s name – a seemingly simple task – until one considers the challenges of working with metal type.

Cooper & Beatty had a strong sense of branding, and very little left their shop without their signature mark. However, there was one notable exception: invitations. Announcements for visiting designers, such as this one, were exempt from their branding policy. These invitations balanced the fine line between commerce and culture, and Fleming ensured that the focus remained on the honored guest – rather than the company. – Rod McDonald

Artifact Text

Hermann Zapf / Calligrapher / Type Designer / Typographer An outstanding exhibition of original sketches, working drawings and calligraphy for type designs, ornaments, medals, stamps and label; along with books, single proof pages, broadsides and miscellaneous ephemera by the most original type designer of our day. This work was arranged and exhibited by the Contemporary Arts Center, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and has also been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, and the American Institute of Graphic Arts in New York. This is the only appearance of the Zapf exhibition in Canada before its return to Germany.

June 12–30, at 401 Wellington West, 9–5.30 PM

Cooper & Beatty, Limited Type Craftsmen