ITC Benguiat / Friz Quadrata

ITC Benguiat

In the late 1970s, Ed Benguiat was working at Herb Lubalin’s design studio, and was asked by a friend to design a logo for a new store. Benguiat went through hundreds of trail designs, and although one was eventually approved, he became enamored with the character shapes of one of the rejected designs.

Benguiat continued to draw variations on the alphabet style until Lubalin declared that this doodling was taking up too much time. Although he officially stopped drawing, Benguiat reviewed what he had accomplished and decided that he had the makings of a typeface. He submitted the design to ITC’s Typeface Review Board. Although rejected the first time, Benguiat persisted and actively sought out each Board member’s approval beginning with Lubalin. Benguiat resubmitted the design and the Board approved it in 1976. ITC Benguiat was released in 1977, and immediately became one of the company’s most popular designs.

Friz Quadrata

For such a small family, Friz Quadrata has had a long and diverse history. Ernst Friz, a native of Switzerland, designed the original design in 1965. Several years after it’s first release as a phototypesetting font for Visual Graphics Corporation, ITC entered into a cooperative arrangement through which Victor Caruso added a bold weight to the family. Both designs then became available through ITC and VGC.

In 1992, the French designer, Thierry Puyfoulhoux, submitted a proposal to ITC for an italic complement to the two roman designs. The proposal was accepted and resulted in an unprecedented level of involvement on the part of the ITC in the fine-tuning of character shapes and proportions. Twenty-seven years and three designers later, the family was complete.

Download the Type Trading Card here (PDF)

• Allan Haley is Director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging. Here he is responsible for strategic planning and creative implementation of just about everything related to typeface designs. He is also responsible for editorial content for the company’s type libraries and Web sites.
• Prior to working for Monotype, Mr. Haley was Principal of Resolution, a consulting firm with expertise in fonts, font technology, type and typographic communication. He was also executive vice president of International Typeface Corporation.
• Mr. Haley is ex officio Chairman of the Board of the Society of Typographic Aficionados, and past President of the New York Type Directors Club. He is highly regarded as an educator and is a frequently requested speaker at national computer and design conferences.
• Mr. Haley is also a prolific writer, with five books on type and graphic communication and hundreds of articles for graphic design publications to his credit.