U&lc magazine, 1975-96

I’ll need to explain the title here. It stands for ‘Upper and lower case’ and was a magazine for typographers and designers. It showcased the fonts created by the International Typeface Corp (ITC) and was a great resource in a pre-internet world.

 Anyway, I came across 24 copies we had stashed away, for the period 1975 to 1996, and was immediately drawn to the unusual and striking covers. It is newspaper size, mostly black and white, and on paper not much better than newsprint – but it was free. As a quarterly, it was available internationally by subscription and paid for by the advertisers.

 An American magazine, it was originally the idea of the designer Herb Lubalin (1918–81), and it ran in print form from 1973 to 1999 when it fizzled out. Its final issue suggested it was going to move onto an online version, but I can’t find any trace of this on the Internet Archive, and there’s certainly no such magazine now. The downward spiral of the print version in the 1990s is there to see, as it became ever thinner with fewer advertisers. Also, by this time it was no longer available as a freebie - our 1989 copy was retailing for $5, and priced for US, Australian and British markets by 1996.

 Each copy was a showcase for design and layout and (if that was your thing) would have been a treat to browse through when it landed on your doormat. It’s also a reminder now, when we have immediate access to countless fonts in our word processors, of just how difficult it was to see what obscure fonts looked like.

 Taking May (spring) 1984 as an example, we have articles on, for example, graphics and advertising paraphernalia used by medical practitioners in centuries past, personalised licence plates, articles on designers such as William Addison Dwiggins and Igarashi, the latest technology, new fonts from ITC, book reviews, and – and this was a measure of how esoteric the subject matter could be –  a feature on carousels (carved horses). The ads reflect a pre-internet world, and include digital type (by Varityper), Xerox copiers, typography for sale, typographers for hire, and so on.

 These all make for fascinating resources in print design, especially for those years before the computer really took over. If you’d like to consult them, get in touch on contactus@richardrobertsarchive.org.uk