Series S01091 - Commercial graphic designs

• Graphic material

0.5 m of textual records and graphic material

Series consists of original artwork, photographs (negatives, prints, and colour transparencies), posters, and textual documents created by or for Fred and Glenn Moffatt for use in the development of product literature, packaging, and advertising material for print media and point-of-purchase displays. Fred Moffatt’s career in commercial graphic design began in 1933 with advertisements for companies including Canadian Cement Company Limited, Continental Life Insurance Company, and Fada Radios, as well as dust jackets for books published in Toronto. Page proofs and newspaper tear sheets from 1935 to the 1940s were created as the result of Moffatt’s work for the Baker Advertising Agency Limited and MacLaren Advertising Company Limited to promote the products of companies in the food industry, automobile dealerships, Kodak, and jewellery designers. The Second World War led to designs for window displays and posters promoting the purchase of Victory Bonds, public health (especially stopping the spread of venereal disease), and immigration; three of these posters were created by Sid Bersudsky. Most of the series is devoted to the Moffatts’ work for Canadian General Electric Company Limited and Black & Decker Canada Inc., including newspaper advertisements, displays, catalogues, and packaging designs for household appliances such as floor polishers, radios, washers, heaters, ironers and irons, kettles, ranges, refrigerators, toasters and toast’r ovens, lawn mowers, and garden tillers. Fred Moffatt produced renderings of Canadian General Electric’s plants and distribution buildings in the 1940s that were used in the company’s promotional literature. The series includes samples of graphic designs produced for other clients during the 1950s, such as the Ontario Field Naturalists, aluminum window manufacturers, the Canadian Business Aircraft Association, and a series of social studies booklets distributed by the Toronto Board of Education that were designed by Fred Moffatt. Also included are files that contain samples of the design work of Glenn Moffatt and articles discussing the contributions of the Moffatts to Canadian design, especially their work with kettles.