When I Designed My First Book
It’s been almost fifty years since I was a sixth grader at ICS, the International Community School in Zumikon, Switzerland. Our teacher that year was Mr. Latter, a tall and charming British man who drove a Mini Cooper to school and made social studies and math painless and even fun for his young scholars — largely through kindness and good humor, but also through his playful visual sensibility. More than any teacher I have ever had, Mr. Latter helped me experience the joy of making things — and making them look beautiful. Aside from my stamp-collecting hobby, being in his class was my first experience of exercising a muscle and instinct that eventually blossomed into becoming a graphic designer.
Mr. Latter had us produce three or four lengthy projects during the school year. One of them, The Civilizations of Central and South America, still survives thanks to my mother. Presentation was a large part of the effort and to this day I recall the thrill of packaging the report. I typed it on white paper, glued the typed pages onto colored signature sheets, and sewed the signatures together into a perfect bound book. The icing on the cake was the adhesive matte finish that covered the report and made it feel like a million bucks.
I produced similar social studies projects during this sixth-grade class on Abraham Lincoln, Washington DC, South America, and Madagascar.
With eternal thanks to Mr. Latter — and to my mother for carefully saving this report so that I could enjoy it all these years later.
Sadly, Mr Latter is no longer with us. But posthumously, I propose naming this entirely unreadable font Mr. Latter Extra Bold, from the Mr. Latter font family. See the photo below for Mr. Latter’s own much more readable, letters.
Introduction to “The Civilizations of Central and South America,” with a National Geographic photo of the Aztec “Pyramid of the Sun” in Teotihuacan, Mexico.
My report drawings were usually tracings of National Geographic illustrations and photographs.
My interest in the civilizations of Central and South America — especially the Incas — came from reading Tintin, who ventured to South America in “Prisoners of the Sun.” Not unlike in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Tintin enters the world of the Incas not through the front door, but through a secret, hidden doorway, a portal to our imagination.
Here I am showing my classmate Susan Hill some of my maps of South America. Mr. Latter’s typography can be seen on the wall and on other student project covers.