Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“the Charter”) is a bill of rights that was entrenched in the Constitution of Canada in 1982. The text on the original poster is set in Carl Dair’s Cartier, which was commissioned for the Centennial in 1967. Issued by Mono Lino in Toronto, its use was an expression of Canadian nationalism for many years afterwards.
The poster version that’s available from the Government of Canada’s website at the time of writing is a later emulation and uses Raleigh, a similar design made by David Anderson and Robert Norton for Typsettra around 1977. Since Raleigh is roman only, the italic parts were set in ITC Garamond.
Charte canadienne des droits et libertés, 1982
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, later edition
Charte canadienne des droits et libertés, later edition
3 Comments on “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms”
The credits for this document are somehwat disputed, see the comments to a 2011 entry at the Nor Collection. Some of the confusion might have to do with the different roles of design and typesetting, and possibly also the various editions.
David B. Berman claims it was typeset by David Berman Communications. On their website, they state:
The accompanying photo depicts the later version in Raleigh, though.
Rod McDonald counters:
And Richard Sauvé adds, supported by Brian Fallak:
In 2017, Nick Shinn made a restoration of Cartier, as his (unofficial) Canada 150 project. The specimen pdf for this digital typeface named Dair has an essay titled “In Search of Cartier” in which Shinn traces the history of Carl Dair’s design and its various versions and interpretations, including Raleigh and Rod McDonald’s 2000 elaboration, Cartier Book.
Thank you, Florian, for researching and documenting another fascinating bit of typeface history!