Lindsay Holton has an atypical background as a type designer. She apprenticed many years ago with the legendary
Les Usherwood in Toronto as a lowly proofreader after completing a literature degree at the University of Toronto and Edinburgh.
“Studying type and contour at extreme close range is like pursuing a map with a microscope; all is visible yet strangely mysterious. It was and continues to be an enchanting world.”
She began to doodle and designed Lindsay, her first face, in 1979, and licensed it to the now defunct dry transfer company,
Letraset of England, in 1980 while writing her first book,
Economic Sex, under pen-name, in Spain.
Now an award-winning mid-career artist and author living in Canada, Lindsay has designed and produced over two hundred and fifty signature Canadian fine furniture pieces for many of Canada’s cultural elite, written three books of social realism —
The Gilded Beaver won Best of 1999 from the Hamilton Arts Council — written and directed one experimental documentary about hunting, created over five hundred original works of fine art, many in both public and private collections.
Today, she pursues what pleases her most. Type is never very far from her thoughts. To wit, her typefaces Gato and Canada await their grand moment; watch for them, you’re gonna love Canada.