Kristian Walker interviewed me last Friday for his blog. You can read it here.

Just for fun, I’ve decided to share my first published writing on the subject of typography. It appeared in the April 19, 1977, issue of Metropolis, the Weekly Newspaper of Minneapolis. Metropolis unfortunately folded about six months later, but it was an incredible place to work. I may write more about it sometime.

As its production manager, I didn’t get much chance to write, but this was one exception. After four months there, I had a reputation as someone who knew something about type. Metropolis had a page in the back called “Final Draft.” It was a page where anything might appear, from short stories to comics to photo essays. I can’t remember anymore if the editor, Scott Kaufer, asked me to write something or if I suggested it myself. Some of it makes me cringe to read again. Some of it is not quite correct. There are things in it that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with anymore, and I am surprised at how jaded I sound. Keep in mind, though, that I was only 21 years old when I wrote it, and, as everyone knows, a 21-year-old knows all there is to know.

(Originally published in Metropolis, the Weekly Newspaper of Minneapolis, April 19, 1977.)

Last Friday I attended the opening of a show at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design showcasing the work of illustrator Mary GrandPré. I hadn’t seen Mary since the mid-eighties when I was the art director at Minnesota Public Radio and she was at the beginning of her career as an illustrator.

Mary is best known now for illustrating the Scholastic editions of the Harry Potter books. Her success as an illustrator is even greater than I had realized—she also did concept drawings for Antz and character designs for Ice Age.

The illustrations she did for me were always wonderful, and not all that different from the much more refined style she’s known for now. (She did the cover for the first Wireless catalog for me in 1983, shown above.)

She asked me for advice back then about whether she should develop a definite style or try to diversify and do many different styles. I urged diversification. Thank goodness she ignored my advice.

That “Edikit” image I posted yesterday was just one piece of the whole kit, the only part I still have that’s intact. It’s the cover of a 28-page booklet of half-size layout grids printed on one side of each page in non-photo blue (light blue) ink. The only text is printed on the inside front cover in 24-point Century Schoolbook, centered, capitalization as shown:

**put your ideas

down here because

this is where you

begin.**

And that’s how I actually used it. I did a thumbnail layout on every available page, and sometimes a drawing or doodle on the reverse side, including these typeface ideas, drawn with a red Sharpie on the inside back cover:

The one near the bottom was probably inspired by seventies art deco faces like Washington or Epic. It even has tiny numbers indicating alternate characters, just like in the specimen books.

Regarding the CCA calendar, I contacted my uncle, Knut Simonson, who I mentioned was a designer at CCA in the sixties. He doesn’t have the red can that the 1968 CCA calendar came in anymore, but he does still have the calendar itself. He shot these two photos of it for me:

The clear plastic part fit snugly inside the can, and the triangular, paperboard calendar part fit inside that. When assembled, six months are visible on the outside. To see the other six, you slip it out, change the way it’s folded, and slip it back in.

It’s interesting that the ones-place digits are printed much larger than the tens-place digits. I wonder why this was done? To make it simpler and more elegant? It makes the numbers kind of hard to read, almost cryptic. Another case of form over function, I’d say. Overall, a good example of the minimalist way designers still tend to use Helvetica.

Knut doesn’t remember who designed it, but I found some similar calendars done for CCA in the seventies credited to a guy named Bill Bonnell. Maybe it was him. Too bad all the examples are in black and white. Probably scanned from an old design annual, printed back when color was expensive.

One more follow up on the item I posted last week, in which I mentioned my uncle Knut who worked as a designer at Container Corporation of America…. After I posted that, Knut sent me a photo of the cookie package he designed:

This was (I believe) one of the first packages for Keebler chocolate chip cookies, and my uncle’s first printed package design. It debuted in July 1967. It seems so tasteful and restrained compared to the modern equivalent.

I was very impressed by this as a budding artist. It put into my mind the notion that, if you were good, your work could be seen by millions of people. Definitely something I was attracted to very early on, and probably something a lot of artists and designers can relate to.

Flash animation designed to promote my typeface Mostra. Move your mouse over it to mix and match the different weights and alternate characters of Mostra in a playful way. You can also think of it as a puzzle: Scramble the letters up and then try to get them back the way they started. If you give up, just reload the page. Created in 2001.

Note: Flash 5 or later plug-in required for animation.