ITC Benguiat is a decorative serif typeface designed by Ed Benguiat and released by the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1977. The face is loosely based upon typefaces of the Art Nouveau period but is not considered an academic revival. The face follows ITC's design formulary of an extremely high x-height, combined with multiple widths and weights.

ITC Benguiat
CategorySerif
ClassificationDisplay
Designer(s)Ed Benguiat
FoundryInternational Typeface Corporation
Date created1977[1][2]

The original version of 1977 contained numerous nonstandard ligatures (such as AB, AE, AH, AK, AR, LA, SS, TT) and alternate shapes for some letters which were not carried into the digital version.[3]

The font family consists of 3 weights at 2 widths each, with complementary italic.

It is also sold as 'Formal 832' by Bitstream.

ITC Benguiat Pro edit

It is a version released in September 2008. It includes support for Central European and many Eastern European characters.

ITC Benguiat Gothic edit

ITC Benguiat Gothic
 
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationHumanist
Designer(s)Ed Benguiat
FoundryInternational Typeface Corporation (ITC)
Date created1979[4]

ITC Benguiat Gothic is a sans-serif variant for the original serif font family. Both faces are loosely based upon typefaces of the Art Nouveau period but are not considered academic revivals. The face follows ITC's design formulary of an extremely high x-height, combined with multiple widths and weights.

The font family consists of 4 weights at 1 width each, with complementary italic.

It is also sold as 'Informal 851' by Bitstream.[citation needed]

Use in popular culture edit

In the 1980s, it was the house font for album cover text at RCA Records.[citation needed]

The font is used on the cover of 1980s Stephen King novels, The Smiths album Strangeways, Here We Come, for the book covers of the Choose Your Own Adventure series, The Bitmap Brothers game The Chaos Engine, as well as in the logos of both the National Assembly of Quebec and the Melbourne Knights.[5] The typeface is featured in the main titles of the Star Trek films, Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: First Contact, as well as video game Nier: Automata. Home videos, such as Paramount's FBI warning, from 1995–present, also uses ITC Benguiat.[6] The font is also used in the logo of the American rock band Greta Van Fleet, in the logo for Netflix show Stranger Things, and in the album art for rapper Logic's album Supermarket. The font is used for the logo written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in the beginning of his films.[citation needed]

ITC Benguiat Gothic is featured as the user interface font in The Sims 2 PC video game[citation needed] and in Boom Blox Bash Party for the Wii.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "ITC Benguiat Gothic Medium". Identifont. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
  2. ^ "ITC Benguiat". MyFonts. 3 December 2007. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
  3. ^ Coles, Stephen (27 July 2016). "Photo-Lettering ITC Benguiat ad". Fonts in use. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  4. ^ "ITC Benguiat Gothic". MyFonts. 3 December 2007. Retrieved 22 November 2009. Following up on his earlier serif design, Ed Benguiat created ITC Benguiat Gothic in 1979.
  5. ^ "Choose Your Own Adventure book series". 27 July 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  6. ^ "A History of Star Trek Movie Titles". TrekMovie.com. 15 March 2009. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  • Lawrence W Wallis. Modern Encyclopedia of Typefaces 1960–90. Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd: 2000. ISBN 0-85331-567-1.
  • Friedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
  • Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.

External links edit