Avant Garde

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noun the advance group in any field, especially in the visual, literary, or musical arts, whose works are characterized chiefly by unorthodox and experimental methods.

adjective unorthodox or daring; radical origin: 1475–85; in sense “vanguard”; F: lit., fore-guard

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that it causes fatigue at text sizes

Avant Garde was created in 1968 by Herb Lubalin for his “Avant Garde” magazine, for which he was the art director. ”Avant Garde” magazine was as innovative and controversial as it’s name suggests, showcasing strong design with sexual themes, rough language, and critcism of American society and government. The typface was born as a logo for the zine, then later developed into a caps only typeface with the help of Tom Carnase.

CAN’T HELP BUT DRAW ATTENTION TO ITSELF.

which is, arguably, the greatest sin a typeface can commit.”

Alix W. White

Ralph Ginzberg also contributed. “I asked him to picture a very modern, clean European airport (or the TWA terminal), with signs in stark black and white,” Ginzburg’s wife and collaborator, Shoshana recalled, “Then I told him to imagine a jet taking off the runway into the future . . .

I explained that the logos he had offered us for this project, so far, could have been on any magazine but that Avant Garde (adventuring into unknown territory) by its very name was something nobody had seen before. We needed something singular and entirely new.”

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Avant Garde Gothic was created in 2005 by Ed Benguiat and later André Gürtler in an attempt to create a more usable version of the font. It was initially released in five weights, but later expanded to create a diverse family of the type, including the original ligatures.

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Given the high volume of requests for the font, Lubalin formed Lubalin, Burns & Co. (which later became the International Typeface Corporation) and released ITC Avant Garde in 1970. Unfortunately, Lubalin quickly realized that Avant Garde was widely misunderstood and misused in poorly thought out solutions, eventually becoming a stereotypical 1970’s font due to overuse.

Tony DiSpigna, one of Lubalin’s partners and co-creator of ITC Lubalin Graph and ITC Serif Gothic, has been quoted as saying, “The first time Avant wGarde was used was one of the few times it was used correctly. It’s become the most abused typeface in the world.” Ed Benguiat, one of type’s legends and a friend of Lubalin’s, commented, “The only place Avant Garde looks good is in the words Avant Garde. Everybody ruins it. They lean the letters the wrong way.”

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The font, after being released for public use as the first International Type Corporation (ITC) font when the company was founded in 1970, went on to be as controversial a typeface as the magazine it was intended for.

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Designed by Alicia Rausch in Adobe InDesign. Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. October 2010. Avant Garde Gothic Pro based on the Avant Garde typeface by Herb Lubalin, 1968. Definition from “dictionary.reference.com.”

Printed by Office Max in Lakewood, Colorado.