Towards a history of design in Canadian children's illustrated books

Abstract

This paper places the development of design in Canadian children's illustrated books within the broader history of graphic design and general book design in Canada. The influence of Walter Crane and William Morris's Arts and Crafts movement in the nineteenth century had a long period of influence on Canadian book design. In the mid-twentieth century, the International Style held sway. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1970s, a generation of book designers converged with the emergence of specialist publishing for children. Notable children's book designers such as Frank Newfeld, publishers such as William Toye, Patsy Aldana, and May Cutler, and designer Michael Solomon moved illustrated children's book design into innovative territory. The paper considers the question of whether there is an identifiable Canadian design style in picture books and examines the house styles of seminal publishers.Peer reviewedfinal article publishe