24 Facts About Allan Fleming

Allan Fleming was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the Alliance Graphique Internationale, a Fellow of the Ontario College of Art, and the first Fellow of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada.

Allan Robb Fleming was the son of Isabella Osborne Fleming, a nurse, and Allan Stevenson Fleming, a clerk with Canadian National Railways.

From 1945 until 1947 Fleming worked as an illustrator in the mail order-advertising department of the T Eaton Company, and then until 1951 became a layout artist with Art Associates Studio and an art director with the advertising firm Aikin McCracken.

Allan Fleming became head of typography at the college, a post he held until 1961.

Allan Fleming set up an independent graphic design studio in his home in November 1955, hiring his then student, Ken Rodmell, as his assistant a year later.

Allan Fleming designed the "Type-o-file," an innovative pick-and-mix box of type specimens arranged by family.

In 1959 the New York industrial design firm James Valkus commissioned Allan Fleming to create a new logo for Canadian National Railways as a key part of Valkus' company-wide corporate redesign programme.

Allan Fleming established his first private press that year, the Tortoise Press, whose first book was Eight Poems, by Richard Outram.

Allan Fleming began designing more books, such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' Paul-Emile Borduas and the National Gallery of Canada's Canadian Painters in Watercolour and Folk Painters of the Canadian West.

From late June to early September 1960 Allan Fleming travelled to the UK and Europe on a Canada Council for the Arts grant, meeting among others Jan Tschichold, Karl Gerstner, and Gunter Gerhard Lange of the Berthold type-foundry.

Allan Fleming designed a logo for the Montreal Trust Company; letterhead for Hawker Siddeley Canada; graphics and the logo for Toronto's Malton Airport ; all signage, monumental lettering, and the foundation stone for Massey College at the University of Toronto ; annual reports and invitations; and much more.

That same year Allan Fleming was commissioned to design a new logo for Ontario Hydro, as well as the crest, letterhead, and other related materials for the new Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.

Allan Fleming was promoted in 1965 to vice-president and associate general manager, creative department at MacLaren Advertising.

In 1966 Allan Fleming became a MacLaren's director; by then he was responsible for the work of sixty-three staff in creative services.

In 1969 Allan Fleming designed both a symbol and the launch publications for the new Ontario Science Centre, a symbol for the Metropolitan Separate School Board, the NE Thing Company logo, and a style guide for Canada Post that set the bar for the next 20 years.

Allan Fleming found time for civic duty, designing posters for the "Stop the Spadina Expressway" movement spearheaded by Jane Jacobs, Marshall McLuhan and William Kilbourn.

Closer to home, Allan Fleming's Martlet Press published Twenty-Eight Drawings by Barbara Howard: Howard was a close family friend, the wife of poet Richard Outram.

And, in exchange for books for his considerable collection, Allan Fleming began designing stationery and catalogues for Monk Bretton Books, an antiquarian book dealer specializing in fine press books.

In June 1971 Allan Fleming had a heart attack while in Halifax and then a few months later a paralyzing stroke, forcing him to go on disability leave from UTP.

In 1973, Allan Fleming joined Burton Kramer Associates as one of two principals, alongside Kramer.

Allan Fleming resigned from Burton Kramer Associates Ltd in March 1976, joining Burns Cooper Donaohue and Fleming the following month.

Allan Fleming was an indefatigable mentor, teacher and public champion of design in all aspects of Canadian cultural life.

Allan Fleming revolutionized more than the design department at UTP; he revolutionized the relationship between editors, designers, and production and marketing employees, inspiring all with his camaraderie and brilliant innovation.

Allan Fleming's early death was a great loss to family and friends, but his work as a designer, collaborator and teacher continues to reverberate through the Canadian design world and beyond.