| Sta-Lox

MINIATURE

BUILDING
Bai

These artists were often hired without any previous training
whatsoever, and learned to illustrate as apprentices on the job.

“The graphic design tradition in Canada, then, could be said to be
an oral tradition in two senses: it has been informally transmit-
ted, primarily through studios, schools and periodicals, without
having been permanently collected, curated or canonized in print
or by institutions, and it is only now being gathered up again as
an oral history from the practitioners themselves” [4].

For the Eaton’s catalogue, oral histories contribute valuable
information at many levels. They can contribute valuable infor-
mation about how the catalogue was conceived and constructed,
they can relay the experience of consumers in interacting with
the catalogue itselfas well as the goods portrayed in the cata-
logue, and finally, oral histories can capture the nostalgia that
seems to be intrinsic to remembering what it was like to live with
the catalogue every day. If we were to compare these assets to
American or European design history canons, we run the risk of
mistaking orality with a lack of literacy, which devalues the possi-
bilities of enriching Canadian design history. Equally distressing,
where design is indeed documented in print—and therefore liter-
ate—but represents the ordinary or everyday, it is often mistaken
for an inauthentic contribution to our culture.

EVERYDAY STANDARDS AND A CONSTRUCTED VISUAL
VOCABULARY

Everyday design, such as the kind found in Eaton’s catalogues,
constructed a visual vocabulary for its consumers that influenced
their daily life. The catalogues provided standards—a construct-
ed measure of how people ought to live—through the display of
commodities and a narrative of modern progress. Because these

standards were narrated en masse through the visual vocabulary
of each catalogue, designers were ultimately responsible for their
role in developing common cultural relationships between Canadi-
ans citizens and objects and materials.

Post-World War II saw many new retail products, thanks to
injection mould techniques, and new plastic materials. Toys
such as the ones made by Peter-Austin Manufacturing company
(figure 3) and Reliable Plastics evidently emphasize the manufac-
turing capability in Canada, but not necessarily the innovation or
originality in the design of the toy itself. For instance, there is no
design information to inform us about the toy featured in figure
4. It was featured in the 1953 Reliable Plastics catalogue, but it is
unclear whether the design of the toy was original or if it copied
other popular toys in its time. The catalogue description boasts
that this ukulele can be played like a real instrument, but also that
itis “moulded in beautiful assorted colours.” The emphasis of the
material over the design is an artifact of a time where plastic was
still an emerging and exciting material. As with the products from
Reliable Plastics, Medalta and Hycroft potteries products were
equally pervasive and influential in Western Canada. The factories
for Medalta and Hycroft were located in the clay district in Medi-
cine Hat, Alberta, which was about 150 acres in size, and was the
site of massive productions of clay products, from home goods to
clay sewer pipes. Some of the ceramic designers are known in the
histories of the various factories in this district, however many of

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