Carl Dair

Harris Carleton Dair (February 14, 1912 – September 28, 1967), known as Carl Dair, was a Canadian graphic designer, teacher, type designer, and author.[1][2] Primarily a self-taught designer, Dair was internationally known and developed visual design principles for typography which are still in use today.[3][4]

Early life

Dair was born in Crowland Township in Welland, Ontario, in 1912, to William Albert Dair and Bertha Minnie Dair (née White).[5][6] Dair's first job as an 18-year-old was creating advertising and layouts for the Stratford Beacon-Herald.[3]

Career

Dair formed a partnership with Henry Eveleigh and set-up the Dair-Eveleigh Studio from 1947-51 in Montréal, Quebec. He worked principally as a freelance designer on a variety of jobs from department store art director to the typographic director for the National Film Board of Canada (1945).[3] Dair lectured on typography at the Ontario College of Art between 1959 and 1962, as well as teaching at the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts for two years.[7]

Dair published a book, Design with Type, in 1952; it was revised and republished in 1967. In it he described principals of design using primarily typefaces; in particular, he outlined visual principles of harmony and contrast codifying seven kinds of typographic contrast: size, weight, structure, form, texture, colour, and direction. "Contrast is the opposite of concord; it is based on a unity of differences."[8] Design with Type became the first Canadian book to receive the Book of the Year Award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).[9] It was republished by the University of Toronto Press (First Edition) in 2000.

In 1956 and 1957, after receiving the RSC fellowship, Dair studied type design and manufacture in the Netherlands.[3] He studied metal type and hand-punching at Enschedé Foundry in Haarlem, Netherlands, where he created a silent film called Gravers and Files documenting the craft of punchcutter P. H. Radisch.[10]

Dair's experiences at Enschedé prepared Dair for the creation of a typeface called Cartier,[10][11] which was commissioned and released for Canada's 1967 centenary celebrations, to be an identifiable Canadian typeface.[12] The original design was based on hand-lettering and had some weaknesses as a typeface, which were corrected by Rod McDonald for Monotype Imaging and released in 2000.[13][14] Cartier is now widely used in Canada.[15]

In 1959, Dair was awarded the silver medal at the Internationale Buchkunst-Austellung in Leipzig, East Germany. In 1962, The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts awarded him its Arts Medal. In 1967, he became a fellow in the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC).

Dair died on a flight from New York City to Toronto on September 28, 1967.[3] The Faculty of Fine Arts at York University honors Dair's contribution to design in Canada with the Carl Dair Memorial Scholarship.[16] A collection of Dair's work can be seen on the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art website.

Typefaces

Typefaces Designed by Carl Dair:

Publications
  • Dair, C. Design with type. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, (1952; 2nd ed 1967)
  • A Typographic Quest, 6 pamphlets published by Westvaco Papers in the 1960s
  • Dair, C. (Director). (1957). Gravers and Files [Film].

References
  1. Martha Fleming; Allan Fleming; Robert Tombs, Devin Crawley, Donna Braggins, Carol Payne, Brian Donnelly (15 January 2018). The Fleming Files: Allan Fleming's Life & Works. The Porcupine's Quill. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-88984-955-6.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Berry, J. (2003, July 28). Dot-font: Seven Principles of Typographic Contrast. Via CreativePro.com
  3. Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC). (2007, November 17). Gdc fellows: 1960 recipients. Retrieved from http://www.gdc.net/about/fellows/articles67.php
  4. Bibliographical Society of America (December 1994). The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. The Society. p. 502.
  5. "Harris Carleton Dair, 14 Feb 1912"; Ontario Births, 1869-1912, Archives of Ontario
  6. Bibliographical Society of Canada (1965). Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada: Cahiers de la Société Bibliographique Du Canada. Bibliographical Society of Canada. pp. 23–25.
  7. Carl Dair Fonds. Massey College, Toronto (MS Word doc). Retrieved from "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-04-05. Retrieved 2011-10-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. Dair, C. Design with type. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967
  9. University of Toronto Press (Retrieved August 3, 2011) "Timeline." http://www.utpress.utoronto.ca/noflash.html
  10. The Devil's Artisan. (2008). A rogue's gallery of the canadian book and printing arts: carl dair. Retrieved from http://devilsartisan.porcupinesquill.ca/rogues_gallery_dair.html
  11. Paul Shaw (2017). Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past. Yale University Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-300-21929-6.
  12. "Carl Dair, the man who gave Canada its own typeface". Our Windsor, Sep 27, 2015 by Katie Daubs
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2011-08-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  14. Fonts.com (2011). Cartier. Retrieved from http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/hiddengems/cartier.htm Archived 2011-08-14 at the Wayback Machine
  15. Lewis, L. (2011). The canadian encyclopedia/the encyclopedia of music in canada: dair, carl. Retrieved from "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-12-29. Retrieved 2011-08-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Carl Dair Memorial Scholarship". Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  17. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson. The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983, ISBN 0-7137-1347-X, p. 37
  18. "Carl Dair Pro". MyFont. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  • Typography Exhibits Best of Canadian Printing
  • Typographic Contrast and the Web
  • AIGA Design Archives
  • Carl Dair Fonds. Massey College, Toronto (MS Word doc)

Examples of work
  • Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art: The Canadian Art Database
  • Stamp Designs at the Library and Archives Canada
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