Carl Dair

Harris Carleton Dair (1912 – 1967), professionally known as Carl Dair, was a Canadian graphic designer, type designer, author and teacher. He was primarily self-taught in design, but was nevertheless internationally known. He developed visual design principles for typography which are still in use today.

Dair was born in Crowland Township in Welland, Ontario. He landed his first creative job when he was 18, creating advertising and layouts for the Stratford Beacon-Herald.

In a partnership with Henry Eveleigh, Dair founded the Dair-Eveleigh Studio which operated from 1947-51 in Montréal, Quebec. There he worked mostly as a freelance designer. During this time he worked for the National Film Board of Canada. He also lectured on typography at the Ontario College of Art between 1959 and 1962. Dair taught at the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts for two years.

Dair’s book, Design with Type, which described principles of design using typefaces, was published in 1952 and revised in 1967. Design with Type became the first Canadian book to receive the Book of the Year Award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Dair created a typeface called Cartier, which was commissioned and released for Canada’s 1967 centenary celebrations, to be an identifiable Canadian typeface.

In 1967, he became a fellow in the Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC).

Dair died on a flight from New York City to Toronto on September 28, 1967.

Cited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Dair

https://gdc.design/fellows/carl-dair-fgdc

https://utorontopress.com/ca/blog/tag/carl-dair/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *