ALL ABOUT CREATIVITY

Some weeks ago I posted about the LNERs adoption of Gill Sans and speculated about the influence of Cecil Dandridge, the man who had instituted a revolution in brand awareness in the the 1930s. If you missed those posts read them here and here and here.

Just the other day I chanced across this article written by CG Dandridge and published in the 1937 edition of the Penrose Annual.

It’s called ‘Evolution in Printing of Railway Propaganda’.

He described how he standardised the printing of timetables, posters, leaflets and handbills, using just the one typeface, Gill Sans – “The task was particularly difficult,” he writes, “because nearly one hundred printers undertake work for the LNER in London and the provinces, each with his own ideas of type setting and type equipment.”

He concludes: “Its (Gill Sans) universal use…constitutes what may be regarded as the largest type reformation in our time.”

What a modest man. He deserves greater recognition.