Canadian Graphic Design in the 1950s and 1960s: The Shaping of a Profession

This paper explores the growth of a professional design community in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s by focusing on two collaborations among graphic designers in the postwar period: the Canadian Typography exhibitions (1958-1964) and the international typographic exhibition Typomundus 20 (1963-1966). These exhibitions helped to produce and publicize a new discourse that allowed Canadian typographers and communication designers to think of themselves as belonging to a unified, distinct community of “graphic designers”. Specifically, the exhibitions encouraged professional cohesion by promoting reflection on the status and role of graphic design with respect to high art, mass communication, and society at large, by advancing a set of professional standards through expert judging and education, and by facilitating an exchange of ideas between Canadian professionals and the international graphic design community. Finally, this paper clarifies the important role played by Marshall McLuhan’s ideas in these developments