Artifact Type: Softcover Books
Title: Canadian Play Series:
— Jack Grey, Striker Schneiderman
— Ted Allan, My Sister’s Keeper
— David Freeman, Creeps
— Arthur L. Murphy, The First Falls on Monday
Year: 1972, 1973, 1976
Designer: Burton Kramer
Studio: Burton Kramer Associates
Client: University of Toronto Press
Size: 204mm X 128mm (each)
Condition: Very Good
Collection: Canada Modern Archive
A series of 4 softcover books published by the University of Toronto Press, each featuring a new (at the time) and upcoming Canadian play on contemporary subjects. The titles included in the series are: Striker Schneiderman by Jack Grey (red cover), My Sister’s Keeper by Ted Allan (blue cover), Creeps by David Freeman (orange/red cover) and The First Falls on Monday by Arthur L. Murphy (purple cover).
The design employed on the covers is common across all titles, with a simple colour change and text update across the entire suite. The graphic illustration on the front takes a square composition, rendered from strokes with incremental line weights. Kramer then, in his signature approach, rotates these in circular crops, through 45º, in 4 decreasing phases to the centre. Forming a metaphor for ‘acts’, becoming more complex and interconnected as the transitions play out with a conclusive circular eye-like shape to the centre.
This work was commissioned by Laurie Lewis, assistant to Allan Fleming at U of T Press at the time.
