Drawing on Type

Drawing on Type is the life-story of one of Canada's more colourful book-world characters -- Frank Newfeld, designer, illustrator and storyteller extraordinaire. It is a wide-ranging account, beginning with Newfeld's youth in England during the Second World War and leading to his involvement in the book trade in Canada. Eventually becoming Art Director, and subsequently, Vice-President of Publishing at McClelland & Stewart, he went on to co-found the Society of Typographic Designers of Canada (now the Graphic Designers of Canada), and to run the illustration program at Sheridan College. Newfeld pulls no punches: he is critical of a college system that infantalizes its students; of childrens'-book illustrators that insult young readers' intelligence; of authors, artists, designers and editors who condescend to their collaborators. Yet he is as unflinching in his evaluations of himself as he is in his evaluations of others, for Drawing on Type is also a reckoning of self.