“When the makers of ‘Rapitype’, a rival to Letraset’s rub-down
lettering, launched their product in about 1970 and were seeking
new designs, I offered my stencils. They were marketed under the
original name of ‘French Stencil’, and were perhaps the first font
of this kind to be made. Letraset did not get the message for
another decade. When Letraset France launched an almost identical
font under the name of ‘Charrette’ (the French word for a rustic
two-wheeled cart, which the English company misspelled ‘Charette’),
it got into trouble with the Fondation Le Corbusier for having used
letters that they piously believed to have been designed by the
great man for his own exclusive use. So the Letraset catalogues
obediently and absurdly marked them ‘© Le Corbusier’.” [More…
“When the makers of ‘Rapitype’, a rival to Letraset’s rub-down lettering, launched their product in about 1970 and were seeking new designs, I offered my stencils. They were marketed under the original name of ‘French Stencil’, and were perhaps the first font of this kind to be made. Letraset did not get the message for another decade. When Letraset France launched an almost identical font under the name of ‘Charrette’ (the French word for a rustic two-wheeled cart, which the English company misspelled ‘Charette’), it got into trouble with the Fondation Le Corbusier for having used letters that they piously believed to have been designed by the great man for his own exclusive use. So the Letraset catalogues obediently and absurdly marked them ‘© Le Corbusier’.” [Mosley]
The Letraset version was released before 1976. [Modern Publicity]
