First Showing of the Cooper Series

What it is

A single folded sheet that Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, the Chicago type foundry, used to introduce Oswald Cooper's new roman to printers. It is laid out as a formal title page inside a heavy black rule with a hatched inner band. The words are few: FIRST SHOWING, then COOPER SERIES in very large old-style capitals, then the credit DESIGNED BY OSWALD COOPER. One small swash flourish sits at the centre as the only ornament. After an open white field, the foot names the maker, states that the type is cast of superior copper-mixed metal, and closes with the foundry's slogan, Types That Talk. There is no price, no list of sizes and no body copy. The sheet sells the face by being set in it, and sells the foundry through a named designer and a claim about its metal.

Why read it now

Three moves still hold. First, the sample is the argument: every word is set in the face on sale, so the buyer judges the product directly and has no claim left to discount. Second, calling a catalogue page a FIRST SHOWING turns it into news, a reason to open it now rather than file it. Third, the designer's name turns an anonymous product into a signed one; research on the handmade effect (Fuchs, Schreier and van Osselaer, 2015) found that buyers value goods more when they sense a maker behind them. What has dated: the copper-mixed metal claim promised durability under a press, which means nothing to a buyer of digital fonts, and the sheet shows no sizes or prices, so it only works next to a full catalogue that does the selling on detail. Use: when you launch a new Arabic typeface, template set or design service in the Gulf, build the launch post in the product itself, label it a first showing, and put the maker's name directly under the product name.

Passages worth keeping

What it teaches best

• Specimen as proof
• Demonstration ad
• Typographic cover frame

Read the original archive.org