What was my first design influence?

As a small boy I used to accompany my Mother to a minute, private library near home. For a few pennies it was possible to borrow from a limited range of novels, and my Mother was (and still is) an avid reader.

As she browsed the shelves, I recall waiting near the owner's desk upon which was an ashtray bearing the Dunhill logotype. I became fascinated with the elongated ascenders of the d,h and l and its radically modern appearance in amongst the very traditional dust jackets.

I lived then in a world of tobacco smoke, and the library was no different. The owner sat chain smoking as her customers browsed. The Dunhill ashtray was a necessity and its graphic influence may well have set me on my typographic career journey.