TypeHouse Duragraph was a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based typesetting and printing firm active from at least the late 1970s through the late 1980s. The company operated under the combined name “The Type House & Duragraph” and was located at 200 12th Ave. S. in Minneapolis.[1] By 1989, the firm was listed in trade directories as “Type House + Duragraph” with a Minneapolis phone number.[2]
Design and History
The TypeHouse Duragraph logo was designed in 1982 by Cyril John Schlosser.[3] Schlosser was a Minnesota-based graphic designer who earned a BFA in Graphic Design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1961 and an MFA from Southern Illinois University in 1965, with a graduate thesis focused on engraving and sculpture. He worked as an artist designer at Honeywell for many years and was also associated with Studio West and Protype.[4]
The firm was known for producing a series of limited-edition Christmas booklets, privately printed and numbered for friends of The Type House and Duragraph. One such example, “A Poor Count’s Christmas” from 1980, was number 54 in the series.[5] The company also advertised in the American Institute of Architects Minnesota chapter publications during the late 1970s.[1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The logo is described as an outline-style mark incorporating a United States outline shape.[3] The dual name “Type House” and “Duragraph” reflects the firm’s twin functions: a type house (typesetting service) and a duragraph operation, a term combining “durable” and “graph” that suggests long-lasting printed output. The company employed typesetters, as documented by the career of Gordon Anderson, who worked as a typesetter at Duragraph, Inc. until his retirement in 1980.[6]
Beyond the outline format and U.S. shape, no official documentation of the logo’s intended symbolism, color specifications, or typography has been located. The design’s specific construction details remain undocumented in available sources.
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