The Devil’s Artisan

Learn Canadian printing history with the DA

Devil's Artisan — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:32:51 +0000

‘In DA‘s world, people who can operate a nineteenth-century handcranked cast iron printing press are rock stars. Of course, unlike the grubby xeroxed or Gestetnered zines of yesteryear, DA is beautifully printed, with elegant bookmarks, prints, and other little extras inserted in each issue. DA also manages to be full of historical significance.’

Excerpted from ‘History of Printing’ by historian Christopher Moore in Christopher Moore’s History News.

Some photos from “Kandid Kamera” of the upcoming DA 67

Devil's Artisan — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:06:08 +0000

Brian Maloney and the Columbian Press. Robertson Davies Library, Massey College. September 2010. Credit: Don McLeod.

Opening of 'The Nature of Words' Exhibition, New Gallery, Toronto, September 19, 2010. Left to right: Reg Beattie, Mira Coviensky, Wendy Cain, Sigrid Blohm, Will Rueter. Credit: Don McLeod.

Novelist Leon Rooke (l) and Head Coach Stan Bevington, Coach House Press Wayzgoose, Toronto, September 9, 2010. Credit: Don McLeod.

Bliss Carman Issue

Devil's Artisan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:06:19 +0000

‘Just a note to say how much I’m enjoying DA 61. The cover is beautiful, the illustrations inside are great, and the lead article is rekindling my interest in Carman. I’m recalling a course in Maritime literature from my days at Mount Allison in Sackville, reading Low Tide on Grand Pré. And, of course, I continue to wonder whether any sources exist that might shed light on Carman’s personal or literary erotics. Excellent work all around.’ — Steven Maynard, Professor of History, Queen’s University, Kingston

Undated testimonial

Devil's Artisan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:47:41 +0000

‘We have been a subscriber forever or since DA began, whichever is longer…. Yours is quite a wonderful little journal.’ — R. Russell Maylone, Curator, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Illinois

Little known facts about Louis Blake Duff

Devil's Artisan — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:59:21 +0000

A recent and extremely interesting email from Colin Jose, a reader of DA and historian at the Soccer Hall of Fame in Vaughan, Ontario.

The specific issue Colin refers to is DA 54, Spring/Summer 2004.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Colin Jose
To: Devil’s Artisan
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:55:31 -0400
Subject: Louis Blake Duff

Good morning,
In surfing the internet last night I came across the blog in your spring edition on Louis Blake Duff.

Nowhere in that blog is it mentioned that Louis Blake Duff, just like his great-grandson, Duff Gordon, won an Olympic Gold medal.

While Mr. Duff’s literary career is generally known, it seems that his sporting career has been forgotten. Not even the University of Toronto, which has many of his books, knew about it, until I asked what they knew.

Mr. Duff was in fact the manager of the Galt Football Club team that won an Olympic Gold Medal at the Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904.

In an abbreviated competition Galt defeated Christian Brothers College of St. Louis 7-0 and St. Louis School, also of St. Louis 4-0. The team was presented with their gold medals immediately following the game.

A player himself in his youth Louis Blake Duff also managed the tour of the Galt Football Club to Manitoba in 1903, was President of the Western Football (Soccer) Association of Ontario in 1906 and 1907 and in addition of the Ontario Hockey Association for a while.

Sincerely,
Colin Jose,
Historian,
The Soccer Hall of Fame,
Vaughan, Ontario.

Printeresting

Devil's Artisan — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:20:57 +0000

Many thanks to Anthony Drehfal of Block & Burin for this bit of arcana.

http://printeresting.org/2009/05/14/journeys-in-printing-with-inkster

Review of DA 62 & 63 in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, Spring 2010

Devil's Artisan — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:39:12 +0000

Graphic design historian Brian Donnelly describes the state of design history in Canada as ‘dispossessed because it has not been formally established or preserved through time.’ By way of redress DA (The Devil’s Artisan): A Journal of the Printing Arts has devoted two issues to the life and work of the designer Allan Fleming, guest edited by his daughter Martha Fleming. DA has for thirty years been the leading journal of the printing arts in Canada, a fitting publication to showcase the career of this important designer, a career which was cut short in 1977 at the age of 48. Many do not realize the extent to which they are familiar with the work of Allan Fleming. Notable among Fleming’s credits is the CN logo, one of the world’s top 50 logos according to a panel of judges commissioned by the Report on Business Magazine in partnership with the London Financial Times in 2000. It is, as described by judge and designer Jasper Morrison, ‘a perfect blend of symbol, typography and intent’ (no. 63, 31). There is also the compelling Ontario Hydro plug, ‘dignified and distinctive, yet dynamic,’ an excellent example of the integration of corporate identity and design (no. 63, 76). Yet Allan Fleming was also an art director at one of Canada’s premier magazines (Maclean’s), and chief designer at Canada’s pre-eminent scholarly press (University of Toronto Press). Furthermore he was a teacher and a mentor. ‘His design pedagogy — both formal and informal — shaped an entire generation of graphic designers in Canada’ (no. 62, 6). And while he may have trained in the UK he was uniquely defined by his nationality, his work contributing to ‘the creation of a true Canadian vernacular’ (no. 63, 15). In the words of Martha Fleming, ‘all this and more is as much about a Canada he could see in his mind’s eye as it is about the work of the man’ (no. 63, 16). Pursuing an art which had become his life he was guided by a sense of responsibility. As he said in 1958, ‘For the past three centuries, men have worked honestly and hard and long to carry the main stream of design in this field, and give us integrity of statement. Responsibility to one’s society would seem to require the picking up of the custody of achievement, as a great many people continue to do’ (no. 62, 8).

There are eleven articles devoted to Allan Fleming in these two issues of DA, four of them authored or co-authored by Martha Fleming. Issue no. 62, ‘Allan Fleming’s Many Worlds,’ focuses on the design career of Fleming. Among the questions it intends to broach are, ‘How did — and does — his work communicate, and to whom? And ultimately, how has this shaped the landscape of Canadian graphic design today?’ (no. 62, 9). It is also designed to ‘make available to researchers and students alike some of the scholarly apparatus that will open up Allan’s work as a case study for this nascent field of graphic design history in Canada’ (no. 62, 10). It includes a chronology and images of Fleming’s life and work, autobiographical fragments, and a survey of Fleming archival resources (no. 63, i). The first essay by Martha Fleming, ‘Allan Fleming’s Many Worlds: Making Design History in Canada,’ introduces us to Allan Fleming the man and the designer, providing an overview of a ‘varied and prodigious’ practice comprising ‘logos, book design, medals, coins, stamps, television, commercials, advertising campaigns, typographic ephemera and magazine design, to name but a few (no. 62, 6). It is followed by a chronology and selected autobiographical writings. The autobiographical fragments are composed of two parts. The first is a reminiscence and reflection on his career and childhood chronicling his first interest in illustration, commercial art, and typography. The second is a piece written by Fleming which originally appeared in Typographic. Here he reveals his Canadianness, tracing his evolution into what he describes as a ‘typographer’s folk hero.’ In the following essay, ‘Of Gravestones, Lettering, and Circus Wagons: A Look at the Work of Allan Fleming,’ award-winning designer Robert Tombs provides an overview illustrating the breadth and range of Fleming’s work from the signage at Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg, Ontario, to The Correspondence of Erasmusdesigned by Fleming for the University of Toronto Press. A survey of archival evidence spanning the full length of Fleming’s career is provided by librarian Devin Crawley and Martha Fleming. Archival collections ranging from Allan Fleming’s personal papers recently acquired by the Clara Cooper & Beatty fonds at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and the MacLaren advertising fonds at the Archives of Ontario are described, followed by a list of archival resources by project.

Issue no. 63, ‘In Allan Fleming’s Archive,’ is a companion volume containing articles about the work of Fleming by historians of design, photography, and the book (no. 62, i). There is a personal look at Fleming by his daughter in ‘Allan Fleming at Home: A Partial Reconstruction.’ It provides a window into his personal library, his taste in music, the interior decor of his home, and his difficult final years. Donna Braggins, former art director at Maclean’s, outlines Fleming’s brief yet significant stint as designer and art director for the magazine, in which he ‘demonstrated to the Canadian design world that there was the possibility of a distinctly Canadian approach to design’ and left a legacy that ‘showed remarkable strength, humour and a successful marriage between the content and the design’ (no. 63, 29, 45). Carol Payne, photo studies scholar, discusses Allan Fleming’s award-winning work, Canada: A Year of the Land / Canada, du temps qui passe, produced with Lorraine Monk as a National Film Boad of Canada Still Photography Division Centennial project. It is a project which Fleming called ‘the most important commission of my career’ (no. 63, 53). Brian Donnelly discusses Allan Fleming’s work on a logo redesign at the Bay, a company with which the designer had a long association. Donnelly describes it as one of ‘the ones that got away’ (he lost the commission); nevertheless, Fleming succeeded in shaping ‘the process which in turn shaped the design’ (no. 63, 80). The issue concludes with Devin Crawley’s overview of the designer’s final ‘frustrating years’ in Canadian publishing at the University of Toronto Press where ‘a conflict between creative idealism and stern fiscal management’ played out between Fleming and the Press’s director (no. 63, 97).

These two issues of DA are meant to encourage in readers serious study of the work of Allan Fleming ‘by putting the research means at their disposal’ and giving them ‘a sense of just how much there is to discover’ (no. 62, 10). ‘The complete book is yet to be written, its author yet found’ (no. 63, 19). The challenge has been issued, the groundwork laid. Who will give this brilliant designer the recognition he is due? In the meantime DA has provided a welcome and long overdue treatment of the work and life of Allan Fleming.

Mary Kandiuk

York University

The Power of Design

Devil's Artisan — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:19:50 +0000

‘Sir. I am new to DA, so I do not know if you publish comments. Nevertheless … One sentence in DA 63 calls for comment. Brian Donnelly wrote, about the Hudson’s Bay company redesign, ‘Indeed, the power of design might even rely on the absence of its creators, as its relative anonymity focuses on the audience and erases the desire to understand ”what the designer meant” [p.94]. ‘Might’? Of course! Design serves some purpose, otherwise it is not design, for design that shows itself serves its own purpose and is art. Design must definitely not detract from but, rather, must be subservient to the purpose of the object. Consider books. Books are published to sell a story, or to argue a point. The design, then, must help sell that story or argument. Design that stands out is bad design because it interferes with the purpose of the book. Thus, the best designed books are those where the design is not evident. As only people in the trade, in which cast (caste?) I include critics, and aficionados — hobbyists, essentially — read credits, consequently the best designers are and should be generally anonymous. Which is a cruel irony: no-one should notice your best work! This is true beyond books, too.’ — Gordon D. Jomini, Fredericton.

From Helsinki

Devil's Artisan — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:55:09 +0000

Hi, I am making a web page for an amateur baroque band that I play in. The page will contain some information in Finnish language about the band and baroque music, nothing commercial. Would it be possible for me to use in our web page as decoration those ornaments and initials you have published? Best regards, — Aurora Seppanen

The Old Mill

Devil's Artisan — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:53:15 +0000

Hi Tim, So, I’m having a solitary late lunch in the bar at The Old Mill in Toronto, after beating the drum for Ryerson at the Mags U trade fair, and what do I see on a credenza near the bar than a small stack of DA 56. I pick up a copy to treat myself and find a fine piece on Frank Newfeld (before Alligator Pie, when he really was a magical designer) and a poem about Richard Outram, who I knew slightly, years ago, at CBC, as a long-time off-camera studio guy — props? I think so. And then something by you, titled Dingbats, Ornaments and Fancy Initials. I start reading and am charmed to learn about the barn and the Bunyans and your very smart treatment of your dad, then the fact that you’re putting the things online as downloadable shareware. Terrific, I think. I’ve got to tell a couple of designer friends, who will be tickled to have these things available.

And then I hit the last paragraph. a) I don’t remember us ever talking about those dingbats, etc. specifically, but turning them into shareware was exactly the kind of thing I meant. Good for you for picking up the idea and running with it in that direction. b) You’re very kind. Nobody ever thanks consultants publicly like that. Finding that credit was a total surprise and delight. You are completely welcome — and now on my browser list of `Favourites’. Warmest regards to all there, — Charles Oberdorf

Find the DA dingbats (and the story) here.