Allan Robb Fleming
Allan Robb Fleming (7 May 1929 –
31 December 1977) is a canadian graphic designer who
was Born in Toronto, Ontario , he is
the one that created the Canadian
National Railway logo, he was Vice President and Director of Creative
Services at the typographic firm Cooper and Beatty Ltd. when he designed the new
CN logo in 1959. Later In 1962 , he became an art director for Maclean's magazine,
he was director of creative services at MacLaren Advertising. From 1968 to
1976, he was the chief designer at the University
of Toronto Press , in addition he was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and
the Alliance Graphique Internationale, a and a
fellow of the Ontario College of Art, and the
first Fellow of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada.
In His Early
Years : Allan
Robb Fleming was the son of Isabella Osborne Fleming, a nurse, and Allan
Stevenson Fleming, a clerk with Canadian
National Railways They were both Scottish immigrants to Toronto.
His Beginnings where when
the Flemings returned to Toronto in May 1955, Allan set up as a freelance
designer with illustrator Lewis Parker and taught part-time at the Ontario College of Art. He
became head of typography at the college, a post he held until 1961. He also
set up an independent graphic design studio in his home in November 1955,
hiring his then student, Ken Rodmell, as his assistant a year later. It was in
this period that Fleming designed his first book.
In September 1957 Fleming joined Cooper &
Beatty Typesetters as typographic director and designer. The range and flair of
the work he effected for C&B garnered attention internationally, and
brought in a host of awards from the New York Art Directors Club, the Type
Directors Club of New York, and the AIGA among others. As well as paying work
for companies such as General Motors, London Life, the Hudson’s Bay Company,
and others, Fleming produced witty and effective advertising ephemera for
C&B itself. He also designed the “Type-o-file,” an innovative pick-and-mix
box of type specimens arranged by family.
Fleming also co-organized (with Franklyn Smith)
anumber of significant exhibitions of internationally acclaimed designers such
as Karl Gerstner, Hermann Zapf and Saul Bass at C&B's headquarters in
Toronto. In 1958 he attended the highly influential Silvermine Conference
("The Art and Science of Typography: An International Seminar of
Typographic Design") in Norwalk, Connecticut, delivering that year the
Rous Lecture on Typography at the Ontario College of Art, on the subject of
legibility. The Flemings’ first daughter, Martha, was born in October 1958.
HIS WORKS
:
The CN
Logo
Canadian National
Railway logo, 1959
In 1959 the New York industrial design firm
James Valkus commissioned Fleming to create a new logo for Canadian National
Railways as a key part of Valkus' company-wide corporate redesign programme.
The resulting logo, launched in 1960, is still in use today and acclaimed as
one of the top 50 corporate logos of all time by design historian Alice
Rawsthorn [Report on Business, October 2000]. In this same year he designed an
innovative and gritty fundraising brochure in an unusual photo-documentary
style for the United Church of Canada, as well as “Printing and Social Change”
by Marshall McLuhan, which was published in Printing Progress: A
Mid-Century Report by the International Association of Printing House
Craftsmen. Fleming also established his first private press that year, the
Tortoise Press, whose first book was Eight Poems, by Richard
Outram.
Besides launching the CN symbol in 1960, Fleming
redesigned the Bank of Nova Scotia logo, and worked on projects for Dow
Chemical Company, Salada Foods, Jordan Wines, Vickers and Benson, Eaton’s, and
of course Cooper & Beatty. He began designing more books, such as the
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Paul-Emile Borduas and the
National Gallery of Canada’s Canadian Painters in Watercolour and Folk
Painters of the Canadian West. Peter Fleming, Nancy and Allan’s only son,
was born in August.
From late June to early September 1960 Fleming
travelled to the UK and Europe on a Canada Council for the Arts grant, meeting
among others Jan Tschichold, Karl Gerstner, and Gunter Gerhard Lange of the
Berthold type-foundry. He exhibited work at Monotype House Gallery in London at
the invitation of Beatrice Warde, gave an address on North American graphic
design, and persuaded Ken Rodmell, then living in London, to return to Toronto
to work for him at Cooper & Beatty and join Jim Donoahue who by then also
worked in the creative department at C&B. In 1961, Fleming became
vice-president and typographic director in charge of creative services at
C&B.
Maclean's
Magazine, MacLaren Advertising, Ontario Hydro
Ontario Hydro logo, 1962 ,, Maclean’s magazine ,, dK links ,,
1962 was another busy year for Fleming. He designed a logo
for the Montreal Trust Company; letterhead for Hawker Siddeley Canada; graphics
and the logo for Toronto’s Malton Airport (architect John B. Parkin); all
signage, monumental lettering, and the foundation stone for Massey College at
the University of Toronto (architect Ron Thom); annual reports and invitations;
and much more. But in November 1962, he left C&B in order to become art director
atMaclean’s magazine. After a tumultuous nine months there, during
which Fleming radically redesigned the look of the magazine, he was hired as
executive art director at MacLaren Advertising Company Ltd. Its clients
included General Electric, General Motors, Hockey Night in Canada, Imperial
Oil, and Lever Brothers. That same year Fleming was commissioned to design a
new logo for Ontario Hydro (launched 1965), as well as the crest, letterhead,
and other related materials for the new Trent University in Peterborough,
Ontario (architect Ron Thom). In April 1963, Allan and Nancy’s third child,
Susannah, was born.
Fleming was promoted in 1965 to vice-president and associate
general manager, creative department at MacLaren Advertising. Fleming was
involved that year in Liberal Party campaign materials – an election the
Liberals won. In 1966 Fleming became a MacLaren’s director; by then he was
responsible for the work of sixty-three staff in creative services. Among other
accomplishments that year, seven of Fleming’s projects were chosen for exhibition
inTypomundus 20, the first international juried exhibition of
typographic design, which was held in Toronto.
Lorraine Monk of the National Film Board, Still Photography
Division, commissioned Fleming to design the sumptuous NFB Centennial
book, Canada: A Year of the Land/Canada, du temps qui passe, for
which he was awarded the Centennial Medal of Canada and a gold medal for book
design at Graphica ’67'.
UTP Years
In
1968 the first hint of heart trouble occurred. Fleming was unwell that spring,
and left MacLaren Advertising in May, though he continued to be on the board of
directors and served as a creative consultant. That month he shifted gears to
become chief of design at the University of Toronto Press, a post that was
created for him, and an association he maintained until his death in 1977. UTP
was then the fourth largest university press in North America, publishing an
average of eighty to a hundred books a year.
While revolutionizing the look of scholarly books at UTP,
Fleming also continued to do a wide variety of other design jobs for the Canada
Council, Galanty Productions, Gramercy Holding Ltd, Jordan Wines, Philip and
Noah Torno, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and other MacLaren Advertising clients.
With master printer Ernie Herzig, he set up another small press, Martlet Press,
which produced among others high-quality photography books with the National
Film Board.
Last Decade In 1969 Fleming designed both a symbol
and the launch publications for the new Ontario Science Centre, a symbol for
the Metropolitan Toronto Separate School Board, the NE Thing Company logo, and
a style guide for Canada Post that set the bar for the next 20 years. As a
public educationalist, he was also a driving force behind such exhibitions
as Art at the Service of Intention: Graphic Designers at Work (Art
Gallery of Ontario), and appeared on Robert Fulford’s TV program, 'On Books'.
Two of UTP’s publications designed by Fleming -- The Economic Atlas of Ontarioand Rural
Ontario -- won AIGA awards in 1969. The following year, Fleming
designed a logo for the Metropolitan Educational Television Authority and one
for Gray Coach Lines, and was appointed to the National Design Council. Fleming
also found time for civic duty, designing posters for the "Stop the Spadina
Expressway" movement spearheaded by Jane Jacobs, Marshall McLuhan and
William Kilbourn. Also in 1971, another UTP book, Goethe’s Faust,
translated by the renowned literary scholar and painter Barker Fairley and
illustrated by one of Fleming’s protégés, Randy Jones, won yet another AIGA
award, and The Economic Atlas of Ontario won the World’s Most
Beautiful Book prize at the Leipzig International Exhibition of Book Arts. 1971
saw Fleming designing the United Church of Canada’s new Hymnal, in
tandem with designer and UTP colleague Laurie Lewis. A notable UTP book that
year was Sculpture Inuit, done for the Canadian Eskimo Arts
Council. Closer to home, Fleming's Martlet Press published Twenty-Eight
Drawings by Barbara Howard: Howard was a close family friend, the wife of
poet Richard Outram. And, in exchange for books for his considerable
collection, Fleming also began designing stationery and catalogues for Monk
Bretton Books, an antiquarian book dealer specializing in fine press books.
In June 1971 Fleming had a heart attack while in Halifax and
then a few months later a paralyzing stroke, forcing him to go on disability
leave from UTP. He didn’t stop working, designing philatelic materials for
Canada Post such as a stamp with the artist Alma Duncan, first-day covers for
the Paul Kane and British Columbia centennial stamps, and writing and hosting a
program for CBC TV entitled “Calligraphy: My Love Affair with the
Alphabet.” Quill & Quire, the monthly Canadian book trade
magazine, ran a feature on AF, and he continued to make regular contributions
to professional gatherings. By 1972 Fleming had returned to UTP, but not for
long: he suffered another debilitating heart attack early in the year.
In 1973, Fleming joined Burton Kramer Associates as one of
two principals, alongside Kramer. Among other projects during that period, the
firm developed the new visual identity for the CBC and for Reed Paper.
Concurrently, he also incorporated as Allan R. Fleming Graphic Design
Consultants, but in August he experienced further heart problems which forced
him to cut back on various activities. A highlight of the year was being made a
fellow of the Ontario College of Art, the first year this honor had been given,
alongside the painter A.Y. Jackson. Another NFB book, "Canada", won
the Leipzig World’s Most Beautiful Book prize.
As of January 1974 Fleming became a director of the
industrial design firm Kuypers Adamson Norton Ltd. and launched the CBC symbol
with Burton Kramer. St Thomas’s Anglican Church in Toronto commissioned him to
design a logo for its centennial, and continued to design philatelic materials
for Canada Post.
He resigned from Burton Kramer Associates Ltd in March 1976,
joining Burns Cooper Donaohue and Fleming the following month. The range of his
work from that office covered his complete editorial redesign for Canada's
newspaper The Financial Post, a logo for media company Torstar, packaging
design for MacKenzie Seeds and an award-winning album cover for
singer-songwriter Sylvia Tyson.
It was a tumultuous year: in March he also left his wife and
family and set up house with an editor from UTP, Prudence Tracy. A solo
exhibition of Fleming's work curated by Alvin Balkind opened at the Vancouver
Art Gallery; the exhibition also travelled to the Alberta College of Art in
Calgary, and coming back to Toronto from the opening there, Fleming suffered a
stroke. In late December Fleming had a cardiopulmonary collapse, from which he
died on 31 December
Fleming's Influence ; his outlined
trajectory of Allan Fleming’s career gives a sense of his personality and
energy if only by demonstrating the sheer quantity and variety of his
undertakings, but a simple chronology can’t adequately suggest what Brian
Donnelly in issue 63 of The Devil’s Artisan calls “his
persuasive presentation style and genuine brilliance with words.” Nor can it
convey the attentive and inclusive style that made Fleming such an inspiring
colleague and friend: one from whom all who were interested could learn. He was
an indefatigable mentor, teacher and public champion of design in all aspects
of Canadian cultural life. He revolutionized more than the design department at
UTP; he also revolutionized the relationship between editors, designers, and
production and marketing employees, inspiring all with his camaraderie and
brilliant innovation. This ability to inspire and galvanise disparate
professionals was also a hallmark of his work in advertising and in typographic
design, when those professions were not the flat hierarchies they have since
become. His early death was a great loss to family and friends, but his work as
a designer, collaborator and teacher continues to reverberate through the
Canadian design world and beyond
Allan was hospitalized in Sick Children’s Hospital in
Toronto because of an ear infection that required radical surgery and caused
the permanent loss of hearing in his left ear. He never forgot the trauma. In
1939 Allan and his mother travelled to California as part of his recuperation;
attending the Hollywood Premier of "The Wizard of Oz" formed an
indelible impression.
Back in Toronto, he attended Western Technical Collegiate
from 1943 to 1945 in the commercial art stream. When he was 15, in 1944, his
father died of bone cancer. From 1945 until 1947 Fleming worked as an
illustrator in the mail order-advertising department of the T. Eaton Company,
and then until 1951 became a layout artist with Art Associates Studio and an
art director with the advertising firm Aikin McCracken.
Fleming married Nancy Barbara Chisholm in 1951. Working at
the advertising firm Art and Design Service, he was involved with clients such
as Ford, Helena Rubenstein, and Kaiser-Frazer. In April 1953, the Flemings
relocated to England for two years, where Fleming studied letterforms and the
design of type and books, being mentored by such eminent English designers and
design historians as Stanley Morison, Oliver Simon, Herbert Spencer, and Beatrice
Warde.