Jim Rimmer
{{short description|Canadian graphic designer and letterpress printer (1934-2010)}}
Jim Rimmer (April 1, 1934 {{cite web |url=http://www.gdc.net/about/fellows/articles140 |title=About |publisher=GDC |date=2013-03-26 |accessdate=2017-07-01 |archive-date=2016-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328002355/https://www.gdc.net/about/fellows/articles140 |url-status=dead }} – January 9, 2010{{cite news | url = http://fontfeed.com/archives/jim-rimmer-passes-away-january-8-2010/ | title = Jim Rimmer Passes Away January 8, 2010 | last = Kegler | first = Richard | date = January 9, 2010 | accessdate = January 9, 2010 | website= Fontfeed.com}}) was a Canadian graphic designer, letterpress printer, proprietor of the Pie Tree Press and is especially notable as a designer of typefaces.{{cite web|url=http://new.myfonts.com/person/Jim_Rimmer/|title=Jim Rimmer « MyFonts|website=New.myfonts.com|accessdate=29 June 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://www.p22.com/rtf/ |title=Rimmer Type Foundry Index |accessdate=2010-01-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100112093517/http://www.p22.com/rtf/ |archivedate=2010-01-12 }}
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."{{cite web|url=http://www.gdc.net/about/fellows/articles140|title=GDC - About GDC®|website=Gdc.net|accessdate=29 June 2017|archive-date=28 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328002355/https://www.gdc.net/about/fellows/articles140|url-status=dead}}
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." 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. For a brief time in the 1970s, Rimmer was type director of the Lanston Monotype Corporation in Vancouver.{{cite web |url=http://www.alcuinsociety.com/amphora/145/JimRimmer.html |title=The Alcuin Society : Amphora Magazine |accessdate=2010-01-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707104715/http://www.alcuinsociety.com/amphora/145/JimRimmer.html |archivedate=2011-07-07 }}
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.{{cite web |url=http://www.flurryjournal.com/2009/05/30/about-jim-rimmer/ |title=About Jim Rimmer (Part 3 of 3) | Flurry |accessdate=2010-01-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711012328/http://www.flurryjournal.com/2009/05/30/about-jim-rimmer/ |archivedate=2011-07-11 }}
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.{{cite web|url=http://canadatype.net/newsletters/1207|title=Canada Type News - Canada Type|first=Patrick|last=Griffin|website=Canadatype.net|accessdate=29 June 2017}} Over 200 digital faces, distributed among 18 families, have been made from Rimmer's designs.{{cite news | url = http://www.caxtonclub.org/reading/2008/jun08.pdf | title = It's Something in the Air: Bookmaking in Vancouver, B.C. | last = McCamant | first = Robert | date = June 2008 | accessdate = January 9, 2010 | website = Caxtonclub.org}}
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.{{cite web|title = The Robert R. Reid Award and Medal|url = http://alcuinsociety.com/awards/the-robert-r-reid-award-and-medal/|website = Alcuin Society|access-date = 2016-01-21|archive-date = 2016-01-17|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160117051418/http://alcuinsociety.com/awards/the-robert-r-reid-award-and-medal/|url-status = dead}}
Rimmer died of cancer on January 8, 2010.{{cite web |url=http://typophile.com/node/66109 |title=Remembering Jim Rimmer |website=Typophile.com |date= |accessdate=2017-07-01 |archive-date=2010-01-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100128115135/http://typophile.com/node/66109 |url-status=dead }}
Books
- Rimmer, Jim, Leaves from the Pie Tree Press, Pie Tree Press, 2006.{{cite web |url=http://www.p22.com/RTF/pietree.html |title=Leaves from the Pie Tree Press |accessdate=2010-01-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115145525/http://p22.com/rtf/pietree.html |archivedate=2010-01-15 }}http://www.wlbooks.com/cgi-bin/wlb455.cgi/36722.html{{dead link|date=July 2017}}
Further reading
- Richard Kegler, 'Remembering Jim Rimmer', in Parenthesis; 19 (2010 Autumn), p. 41-42
References
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External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100201185210/http://www.p22.com/rtf/about.html Rimmer Type Foundry at the P22 Type Foundry website]
- [http://new.myfonts.com/person/Jim_Rimmer/ Jim Rimmer typefaces at MyFonts]
- [http://www.alcuinsociety.com/amphora/145/JimRimmer.html "Celebrating Jim Rimmer's Magic," at Alcuin Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707104715/http://www.alcuinsociety.com/amphora/145/JimRimmer.html |date=2011-07-07 }}
- {{YouTube|Ph0ooDzD4ZQ|Video footage of Jim Rimmer, in trailer of documentary, Making Faces}}
- [http://digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/framed/id/29/rec/2 Portrait of Jim Rimmer] – Linocut of Jim Rimmer by Andrea Taylor, from the UBC Library Digital Collections.
- [http://www.lib.sfu.ca/system/files/28909/RimmerJ.pdf Records of Jim Rimmer and Pie Tree Press are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books]
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Category:Deaths from cancer in British Columbia
Category:Canadian graphic designers