Stratton Journals

A brief overview and examples of Carl Dair’s Seven Principles

Carl Dair was a Canadian typographer, graphic designer and author. He is best known for his book “Design with Type” (1967). In the book Dair described seven principles of typographic contrast which included size, weight, structure, form, texture, color, and direction. Dair believed contrast was key to quality designs within typography.

This cover uses a couple of Dair’s Principles of typographic contrast to catch the viewers’ attention. The title is On Gravity, it is placed on a white backdrop, and all the lettering is black. Covering over half the page are large block characters in no order, these letters spell out “On Gravity”. The form in which the letters are laid out are made to look as if someone dumped these letters into a small box with no organization, besides the two at the top “On” leading viewers to assume the rest of the characters spell out “gravity”. The principles that are most prevalent here are the contrast of size, contrast of weight and contrast of form.

The cover above is the Pretty Woman film Cover. This piece displays Julia Roberts and Richard Gere standing next to one another, with Gere leaning on one side of her while the movie title is laid out vertically from top to bottom on the other side of Roberts. There are many principals in play in this scene. Contrast of Size (Each section of lettering is a different size) Contrast of Color (The title “Pretty Woman” is in red which stands out well against the pink, black, and white of the clothing the characters are wearing. And finally the contrast of structure and placement, the horizontal writing paired with the vertical writing makes each section distinct.

The final cover is from the film, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, this film portrays a man who lives a very quiet and boring life but always day-dreams of wild and unique adventures, up until he is forced to step out of his comfort zone and explore the world and search for a man who does his best to stay hidden. On the film cover, Dair’s principles of typographic contrast is very much in play as a unique representation of the film is portrayed. The cover displays a very basic type-font that mimics the theme of the film. Contrast of weight is displayed as the title is much heavier than the text below and to the right of it. In terms of structure and form, the films cover is laid out as such, a large image is taking up over half of the page, with the title laid out horizontally across the lower-middle half below the image. To the right of the film title is the year of release followed by the film rating, below these are the casting and directing credits as well as genre, this is all displayed in a simple, almost spreadsheet-like structure. The contrast of color is also applicable here as the color palette mimics the boring and unadventurous theme. This is all contrasted by the image itself, which is displaying a man in a work-professional outfit sitting on top of the peak of Mt. Everest. The man is sitting next to an open briefcase with a coffee placed next to him.