International Typeface Corporation

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The International Typeface Corporation (ITC) was a type manufacturer founded in New York in 1970 by Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin and Edward Rondthaler. The company was one of the world's first type foundries to have no history in the production of metal type. It is now a wholly owned brand or subsidiary of Monotype Imaging.

Contents

History

The company was founded to design, license and market typefaces for filmsetting and computer set types internationally. The company issued both new designs and revivals of older or classic faces, invariably re-cut to be suitable for phototypesetting and later digital use and produced in families of different weights. Although it is claimed that the designers took care to preserve the style and character of the original typefaces, several ITC revivals, such as ITC Bookman and ITC Garamond in particular, have received criticism that the end result was related in name only to the original faces.[ citation needed ] Among the company's notable type designers was Ed Benguiat the creator of Tiffany and Benguiat fonts.

ITC's revival designs frequently followed a formulary of increased x-height, multiple weights from light to ultra bold, multiple widths and unusual ligature combinations, sometimes with alternate characters such as swashes. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Critics sometimes[ citation needed ] complain that, while the dramatically higher x-height increased legibility in smaller point sizes, in normal text sizes the extreme height of the lowercase characters imparted a commercial, subjective voice to texts.

ITC typefaces were widely distributed. Gene Gable commented "You could easily say that ITC designs put a face on the ’70s and ’80s...You couldn’t open a magazine or pass a billboard in the ’70s without seeing [them]." [7]

Typefaces

U&lc magazine

The company published U&lc (Upper and Lower Case), a typographic magazine dedicated to showcasing their traditional and newer typefaces in particularly creative ways, originally edited and designed by Herb Lubalin until his death in May, 1981. Because of its extraordinary blend of typographic design, illustration and cartoons (sometimes by world-renowned artists and cartoonists such as Lou Myers), verse and prose extolling the virtues of well-designed type, as well as contributions by amateur or semi-professional typographers, the magazine was avidly read by type enthusiasts and sought after by collectors the world over.

A web version of the magazine started in 1998, along with a brand-new sans-serif logo by Mark van Bronkhorst (replacing the famous swash lettered logo by Herb Lubalin). In an editorial, John D. Berry wrote: "There’ll be plenty of overlap between the print magazine and the online magazine, but they won’t be identical: some things are best done with ink on paper, others are best done on screen." Yet the paper edition, which in 1998 had shrunk in format from tabloid pages to 8.5" x 11", did not survive for long. The final printed edition was vol. 26 no. 2, dated fall 1999. [8] The last numbered U&lc issue is 42.1.1, issued in 2010.

A book celebrating U&lc, U&lc: Influencing Design & Typography by John D. Berry (the magazine's final editor) ISBN   0-9724240-9-1, was published by Mark Batty in 2005.

In October 2010 Allan Haley announced on the Fonts.com blog that the complete run of U&lc had been digitized and would be made available, one year's worth per month, via PDF download from that same blog. [9]

As part of Fonts.com redesign in 2012, [10] access to U&lc were moved to fonts.com blog, and Learn About Fonts & Typography for various U&lc web edition articles.

Acquisitions and mergers

In 1986 the company was acquired by Esselte Letraset, [11] who had taken over Letraset, originally makers of the first dry transfer lettering, and later to become developers of new typefaces for filmsetting and computer applications. In 2000, Agfa Monotype Corporation announced the acquisition of the capital stock of International Typeface Corporation (ITC) from Esselte. The transaction included ITC’s complete library of over 1600 typefaces, all typeface subscriber and distributor agreements, the itcfonts.com Web site, and typographic software. At this point ITC ceased to operate as an independent entity.

In November 2005 Agfa Monotype was incorporated as Monotype Imaging, with a focus on the company's traditional core competencies of typographic design and professional printing. Famous contemporary typographers associated with Monotype include Adrian Frutiger, Hermann Zapf and Matthew Carter.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optima</span> Humanist sans-serif typeface by Hermann Zapf

Optima is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf and released by the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, West Germany in 1958.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Zapf</span> German type designer and calligrapher (1918–2015)

Hermann Zapf was a German type designer and calligrapher who lived in Darmstadt, Germany. He was married to the calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse. Typefaces he designed include Palatino, Optima, and Zapfino. He is considered one of the greatest type designers of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typeface</span> Set of characters that share common design features

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gill Sans</span> Humanist sans-serif typeface family

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Benguiat</span> American type designer (1927–2020)

Ephram Edward Benguiat was an American type designer and lettering artist. He designed over 600 typefaces, including Tiffany, Bookman, Panache, Souvenir, Edwardian Script, and the eponymous Benguiat and Benguiat Gothic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Gothic</span> Family of sans-serif fonts

Franklin Gothic and its related faces are a large family of sans-serif typefaces in the industrial or grotesque style developed in the early years of the 20th century by the type foundry American Type Founders (ATF) and credited to its head designer Morris Fuller Benton. "Gothic" was a contemporary term meaning sans-serif.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Century Gothic</span> Geometric sans-serif typeface

Century Gothic is a digital sans-serif typeface in the geometric style, released by Monotype Imaging in 1990. It is a redrawn version of Monotype's own Twentieth Century, a copy of Bauer's Futura, to match the widths of ITC Avant Garde Gothic. It is an exclusively digital typeface that has never been manufactured as metal type.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bookman (typeface)</span> 1869 serif typeface

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swash (typography)</span> Typographical flourish found on some letterforms, particularly in italics

A swash is a typographical flourish, such as an exaggerated serif, terminal, tail, entry stroke, etc., on a glyph. The use of swash characters dates back to at least the 16th century, as they can be seen in Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi's La Operina, which is dated 1522. As with italic type in general, they were inspired by the conventions of period handwriting. Arrighi's designs influenced designers in Italy and particularly in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanna (typeface)</span> Typeface designed by Eric Gill

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">ITC Benguiat</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ITC Avant Garde</span> Geometric sans-serif typeface

ITC Avant Garde Gothic is a geometric sans serif font family based on the logo font used in the Avant Garde magazine. Herb Lubalin devised the logo concept and its companion headline typeface, and then he and Tom Carnase, a partner in Lubalin's design firm, worked together to transform the idea into a full-fledged typeface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bauhaus (typeface)</span> Geometric sans-serif typeface

The Bauhaus typeface design is based on Herbert Bayer's 1925 experimental Universal typeface and the Bauhaus aesthetic overall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumner Stone</span> American typeface designer and graphic artist

Sumner Stone is a typeface designer and graphic artist. He notably designed ITC Stone while working for Adobe. A specimen of ITC Stone is shown at his personal website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Usherwood</span>

Les Usherwood was born in England, studied in Kent and started his career as a lettering artist. He moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1957 and worked for various companies until he started Typsettra with David Thomason in 1968. The company supplied typographic layouts, headline and text typesetting, mechanicals, custom lettering and notably typeface design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goudy Sans</span> Humanist sans-serif typeface

Goudy Sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by Frederic Goudy around 1929–1931 and published by Lanston Monotype.

References

  1. ↑ Shaw, Paul. "Tutorial no. 6—Tight but not touching kerning". Paul Shaw Letter Design. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  2. ↑ "Seventies are hot! Sexy spacing & more typography from an over-the-top decade of brilliance". Typeroom.
  3. ↑ Hardwig, Florian (23 October 2019). "Love & Guilt & The Meaning of Life, Etc". Fonts in Use. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  4. ↑ Bomparte, Natacha. "Ed Benguiat: New York Times". History of Graphic Design. NC State University. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  5. ↑ Schwartz, Christian. "Back with a flourish". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  6. ↑ "In Memoriam: Ed Benguiat (1927-2020)". Typeroom. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  7. ↑ Gable, Gene (22 August 2007). "Scanning Around With Gene: Part 2 of That '70s Type!". Creative Pro. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  8. ↑ The Last U&lc
  9. ↑ U&lc Back Issues to be Made Available
  10. ↑ Redesigned Fonts.com Premiers with New Look and Features - New site offers a single source for desktop and Web fonts Archived 2012-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ "Esselte Letraset". The New York Times. 25 June 1986.
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