Comment

The course calendar was produced annually to provide a comprehensive catalog of all the courses offered by the University of Waterloo. Traditionally this had been procured via a contract printer, and was an expensive and time consuming process. In this year (1974) however, George Roth, the head in-house designer, proposed an innovative production system to the Registrar in order to produce the 30,000 copies required.

Roth put in place a master ‘Critical Path’, defining specific dates for all content collation and proof reading schedules for the 40 or so faculty contributors. Roth revised the page design using Times New Roman, combining margin titles with italicized references for all course descriptions. The typesetters sent back full finished and numbered page proofs ready for proof reading, and following a round of corrections they produced the final pages, reducing the number of steps required by the printer.

The publication was printed on a web offset press, using cost effective newsprint paper, finished in perfect bound form. The entire streamlined process resulted in significant savings for the University, both in terms of the financial cost and the time it took to produce. The entire process, from start-to-finish took only 90 days.

The cover design was  selected by the Registrar from a number of options  presented, and consisted of four ‘cubes’ with magenta/black duotone imagery on the front face of each. This publication was exhibited as part of the 1974 edition of ‘The Look of Books’ competition, where the jury commented on the straightforward, clean, and very functional typographic design treatment. The cover added interest to the otherwise ‘informational’ content within the volume.

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