Telephone Directory Covers, Bell Canada

Rolf Harder

Rolf Harder & Associates Inc.

1989

A lithograph of repeatable cover designs for Bell Canada in which the designer uses graduated purple and blue dots to turn the idea of telephone connections into a modular graphic identity.

You immediately see a grid of nine similar dot-clusters on a pale ground—small circles grow and shift in color so the clusters appear to pulse and tilt, producing a subtle optical vibration across the page.

It represents late-20th-century corporate design’s move toward systematic, repeatable visual identities that used simple, halftone-like motifs to make abstract networks and communication visible, linking commercial branding with optical and minimalist art strategies.

Palette

Art Terms

Lithography Design Graphic design Ben-Day dots Minimalism Geometric abstraction

Exhibitions

Design for Use

1944

Hayter and Studio 17: New Directions in Gravure

1944

A History of the Modern Poster

1941

Canada '67

1967