Jim Rimmer
Jim Rimmer (April 1, 1934 [1] – January 9, 2010[2]) was a Canadian graphic designer, letterpress printer, proprietor of the Pie Tree Press and is especially notable as a designer of typefaces.[3][4]
Biography
Jim Rimmer was born on 1 April 1934 and was raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He attended Vancouver Technical School, "which gave an introduction to metal type and presses through the school's large printing trade shop."[5]
After an apprenticeship he began a long period of working with type and design for newspaper publication and printing, all in British Columbia. Rimmer attended evening classes to study graphic design at Vancouver School of Art. "During his freelance years he worked on projects for the major agencies and design studios in Vancouver, for corporations, airlines, mining and forestry companies. A large part of his work entailed letter design and lettering projects."[1] Along with his long career as a designer, Rimmer taught at several colleges including Capilano College, ECIAD, Langara College, Kwantlen College, Richmond and UCFV, Abbotsford.[5] For a brief time in the 1970s, Rimmer was type director of the Lanston Monotype Corporation in Vancouver.[6]
Rimmer was noted as the proprietor of the Pie Tree Press, located in New Westminster, a printing office for which he designed many typefaces in metal, including Albertan, Kaatskill and Stern.[7]
The P22 Type Foundry marketed Rimmer's typefaces as the Rimmer Type Foundry until July 1, 2012, when it was announced that the rights to Rimmer's work were acquired by Canada Type.[8] Over 200 digital faces, distributed among 18 families, have been made from Rimmer's designs.[9]
In 2007, Rimmer received the honor of becoming a fellow of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada. In 2010, Rimmer was awarded the Robert R. Reid Award for lifetime achievement or extraordinary contributions to the book arts in Canada from the Alcuin Society.[10]
Rimmer died of cancer on January 8, 2010.[11]
Books
- Rimmer, Jim, Leaves from the Pie Tree Press, Pie Tree Press, 2006.[12][13]
Further reading
- Richard Kegler, 'Remembering Jim Rimmer', in Parenthesis; 19 (2010 Autumn), p. 41-42
References
- ^ a b "About". GDC. 2013-03-26. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
- ^ Kegler, Richard (January 9, 2010). "Jim Rimmer Passes Away January 8, 2010". Fontfeed.com. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ "Jim Rimmer « MyFonts". New.myfonts.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
- ^ "Rimmer Type Foundry Index". Archived from the original on 2010-01-12. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
- ^ a b "GDC - About GDC®". Gdc.net. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
- ^ "The Alcuin Society : Amphora Magazine". Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
- ^ "About Jim Rimmer (Part 3 of 3) | Flurry". Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
- ^ Griffin, Patrick. "Canada Type News - Canada Type". Canadatype.net. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
- ^ McCamant, Robert (June 2008). "It's Something in the Air: Bookmaking in Vancouver, B.C." (PDF). Caxtonclub.org. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ "The Robert R. Reid Award and Medal". Alcuin Society. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
- ^ "Remembering Jim Rimmer". Typophile.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-28. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
- ^ "Leaves from the Pie Tree Press". Archived from the original on 2010-01-15. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
- ^ http://www.wlbooks.com/cgi-bin/wlb455.cgi/36722.html[dead link]
External links
- Rimmer Type Foundry at the P22 Type Foundry website
- Jim Rimmer typefaces at MyFonts
- "Celebrating Jim Rimmer's Magic," at Alcuin Society Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
- Video footage of Jim Rimmer, in trailer of documentary, Making Faces on YouTube
- Portrait of Jim Rimmer – Linocut of Jim Rimmer by Andrea Taylor, from the UBC Library Digital Collections.
- Records of Jim Rimmer and Pie Tree Press are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books