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.