Q AVANT GARDE
“I asked him to picture a very modern, clean European airport Interesting Fact: (or the TWA terminal), with “I asked him to picture a very signs in stark black and white,” modern, clean European Ginzburg’s wife and airportcollaborator, (or the TWA terminal), Shoshana with signs in stark blackIand recalled, “Then told him to white,”imagine Ginzburg’s wife and a jet taking off the collaborator, Shoshana runway into therefuture. I used called,my “Then I told him to imhand to describe an upward agine adiagonal jet takingof offthe theplane run- climbing way into the future. used mydo that skyward. He Ihad me hand to describe an upward several times. I explained that diagonal the plane climbing theoflogos he had offered us for skyward. He had me do that this project, so far, could have severalbeen times. I explained that on any magazine but that the logos he had offered us for Avant Garde (adventuring this project, so far, couldterritory) have into unknown by been on any magazine but that its very name was something Avant nobody Garde (adventuring into We had seen before. unknown territory) by its very needed something singular and name was something entirely new.” nobody had seen before. -AS TOLDWe TOneeded something singular and enHERB LUBALIN. tirely new.”
CONTENT • Type Foundry - ITC
• Birth of Avant Garde Gothic
• About the typeface- Classification
• Versions of Avant Garde
• How will you identify Avant Garde Gothic? • Comparison with similar looking Typefaces • Usage and Application • Say what? • Bibliography • Acknowledgement
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THE INTERNATIONAL TYPEFACE CORPORATION. ITC
By far, the most influential and successful type foundry of the 1970s and well into the 1980s was International Typeface Corporation(ITC). ITC began as Lubalin , Burns and Co and called itself “the first typo-graphics agency.”Aaron Burns, Lubalin’s partner in the company,was one of the most successful type sales persons and marketers of the 1960s. One of the first companies, Aaron Burns and Co, was actually a division of one of New York’s then largest and most successful type-
setting houses. While Aaron Burns and Co was a good money-maker, burns still longed to have his own company. In 1970 Burns and Herb Lubalin joined forces to sell phototypesetting, lettering and typographic design services to New York advertising agencies and design studios. Their company, cleverly called Lubalin ,Burns and Co, also offered several typeface designs created by Lubalin and his staff that could be purchased nowhere else. Jobs poured into the company.
Burns the consummate promoter and businessman- figured that if his exclusive typesetting company could be successful in New York, it would be equally so in other large cities. Shortly after Lubalin ,Burns and Co was formed, Lubalin, Burns Affiliates, Ltd was also launched. The idea was that there would be an existing typesetting house, which would be provided with an ongoing stream of new typeface designs.The Typesetting house would then pay a fixed monthly fee for the fonts. The problem was , Lubalin and Burns
did not have the capabilities to make phototype fonts-especially for text setting equipment. In an attempt to solve the dilemma, Burns approached his good friend Mike Parker, who was then Director of Typeface Development at linotype. Burns pitch to Parker was that Linotype manufacture fonts of his and Lubalin’s typefaces and provide them to one Linotype typesetting shop in each major American city. Parker wisely saw that if Linotype provided exclusive fonts to just one customer in a city, every other
Linotype customer would be upset. Parker counseled instead ,that Burns take his idea to the next level, “Why not license your designs to every manufacturer of phototypesetting equipment,” he suggested, “and let them pay you a royalty on every font they sell that has one of your designs?” ITC was born out of this conversation. within three years , virtually every manufacturer of phototypesetting was offering ITC fonts to their customers.
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BIRTH OF AVANT GARDE GOTHIC History
Avant Garde Gothic was first used as the logo for a new mayazine by the publisher and poet Ralph Ginzburg. Herb Lubalin, the art director for the publication, showed several sketches for the logo to Ginzburg but none captured the concept of the magazine- to be called AVANT GARDE. Finally, for his historic solution, Lubalin adapted gothic pas and changed the angles of “ A” and “V” so they fit together like a wedge in a pie. He angular-ized the second “A” so that its right stem is parallel
with the left of the “N” and halved the “T” so that one half of it was part of the “N”. The perfectly round “G” carved into the angular “A” in GARDE and “D/E” combination was made into ligature. Both words were tightly letter-spaced to be perfectly stacked , and thus could fit as a block anywhere on the cover. Lubalin turned his rough sketch to type designer Tom Carnase his partner at Lubalin Smith Carnase , who rendered the final form. Since Lubalin wanted all department heads
Lubalin adapted gothic caps and changed the angles of “ A” and “V” so they fit together like a wedge in a pie. He angular-ized the second “A” so that its right stem is parallel with the left of the “N” and halved the “T” so that one half of it was part of the “N”.
for the magazine to be consistent with the logo, Carnase designed additional characters and created more ligatures . After making a handful of these headlines , he realized there were almost enough characters to complete an entire alphabet- and Avant Garde Gothic was born. ITC Avant grade Gothic’s ligatures and alternate characters captured the imagination of art directors and graphic designers - who used them with glee. Fonts sold like virtually no
other typeface and Avant Garde was used to set everything from diner menus to annual reports. Originally, there were two designs of ITC Avant Garde Gothic, a design for setting headlines and one for text copy. The difference between the two was subtle- except that the display design contained the ligatures and alternate characters and the text design did not. When it came to the time to make the first digital fonts, however, only the text design was chosen.
Opentype has allowed ITC to , once again, release an all-singing version of Avant Garde Gothic and graphic designers can once again take advantage of the full breadth of Lubalin and Carnese’s design. All the ligatures and alternate characters have been made available. A gaggle of additional cap and lowercase alternates , and more ligatures were drawn along with a suite of Biform characters (lowercase letters with cap proportions).
Logo For the Magazine ‘AVANT GARDE’
Category -Sans serif Classification- Geometric sans serif Designer(s)- Herb Lubalin, Tom Carnase Foundry -ITC
ABOUT THE TYPEFACE Classification SANS SERIF In typography,
a sans-serif, sans serif, san serif or simply sans typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called “serifs” at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning “without”. In print, sans-serif fonts are used for headlines rather than for body text. Before the term “sans-serif” became standard in English typography, a number of other terms had been used. One of these outmoded terms for
sans serif was gothic, which is still used in East Asian typography and sometimes seen in font names like Century Gothic or Trade Gothic. Sans-serif fonts are sometimes, especially in older documents, used as a device for emphasis, due to their typically blacker type color.
For the purposes of type classification, sans-serif designs can be divided into four major groups Grotesque, Neo-grotesque or Transitional or Realist, Humanist, Geometric (Futura, ITC Avant Garde, Century Gothic, Gotham, or Spartan).
GEOMETRIC sans-serif
typefaces are based on geometric shapes. Note the optically circular letter “O” and the simple construction of the lowercase letter “a”. Geometric sans-serif fonts have a very modern look and feel. Typefaces in this category often have their elements boiled down to two simple forms: circles or other rounded forms, and straight lines. Use them to represent sleek movement, dynamism, or the future.
The design of Avant garde is reminiscent of the work from the 1920s German Bauhaus movement. Letterforms built of circles and clean lines are highly effective for headlines and short texts. The condensed faces have the same modern look, while retaining legibility in lengthier texts. Because of its large x-height, extensive set of alternative and ligatured characters and strong design personality, the face also broke new stylistic ground for typeface creation.
VERSIONS OF ITC Avant Garde Gothic
Cold Type versions
ITC Avant Garde was never cast into actual foundry type, appearing first only in cold type. Alphatype, Autologic, Berthold, Compugraphic, Dymo, Star/Photon, Harris, Mergenthaler, MGD Graphic Systems, and Varityper all sold the face under the name Avant Garde, while Graphic Systems Inc. offered the face as Suave.
ITC Avant Garde Std
It is an OpenType version sold by Adobe. The font family consists of 5 weights, with complementary obliques for all weights and widths. It supports Adobe Western 2 character set. However, the alternate characters, ligatures (except linguistic), and extra characters found in the ITC fonts are not included.
Derivatives ITC Lubalin Graph is a slab-serif version of ITC Avant Garde, also designed by Lubalin. BirthofAHero A font released from Gyom over at the Last Soundtrack, Birth of a Hero seems to be geometric and grungy and is derived from Avant Garde Gothic.
ITC Avant Garde Multilingual
It is a version with Cyrillic support from ParaType. Cyrillic glyphs were developed at ParaType (ParaGraph) in 1993 by Vladimir Yefimov. Alternates and ligatures were added in 2008 by Olga Umpeleva. The family consists of 4 fonts in 2 weights (book and demi) in 1 width, with complementary obliques.
ITC Avant Garde Gothic Pro
It is an OpenType variant of the original ITC Avant Garde Gothic, plus a suite of additional cap and lowercase alternates, new ligatures, unicase glyphs. It supports ISO Adobe 2, Adobe CE, Latin Extended character sets. In addition, the obliques are altered from the original, where optical corrections are no longer used.
ITC Avant Garde Mono
It is a monospaced version designed by Ned Bunnel in 1983. Digital version was produced by Elsner+Flake. The family consists of 4 fonts in 2 weights (bold and light) in 1 width, with complementary italics.
William Sans LET
William Sans LET is a very similar font, but the “regular” typeface is known as “Plain 1.0”.
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HOW WILL YOU IDENTIFY AVANT GARDE GOTHIC? Characteristics And Features.
TiTTLE
LINE WEIGHT SANS SERIF CROSS BAR SHOULDER SMALL
CAPS
SPINE STEM TAIL BOWL TERMINAL V E R T E X
L E G
A distinctive geometric display face, which Lubalin said should be set very tight. A good version comes with a number of unusual uppercase ligatures. The face retains some of the flavor of the late sixties/early seventies.
Identifying Characteristics -bowl of R doesn’t close, but P does -curve on tail of cap Q -abbreviated descenders (esp. g) -low crossbar on G -rectangular dots over i and j -single storey a nd g. -Flat ends for W/w. -Descender in the lowercase ‘u’. - O , G and Q are perfect circles.
g G R K a W i j Q R has an Open Counter , bowl doesnot close
Arms of K meet at the mid-point of the stem.
Square tittle on i .
Abbreviated descender in g
Low crossbar on G
Single storey a and g.
Flat ends in M and W.
Square tittles on j.
Curve on the tail of capital Q
ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 .,<>?/” ()!#$ % ^&\ ; :é ê ë ï í åä ø ý μ π ˆ ˇ ˉ ˘ œ Š Ÿ Ω ¼ ½ ¾ √ ∑ Ω ℮ ∂w Glyph Set - ITC Avant Garde Regular 4opt
ITC Avant Garde Gothic is known for its Ligatures.
Avant Garde Extra Light Condensed Avant Garde Extra Light Condensed Oblique Avant Garde Extra Light Avant Garde Extra Light Oblique Avant Garde Extra Light Condensed Oblique Avant Garde Book Condensed Avant Garde Book Condensed Oblique Avant Garde Book Avant Garde Book Oblique Avant Garde Demi Condensed Avant Garde Demi Condensed Oblique Avant Garde Demi Avant Garde Demi Oblique Avant Garde Bold Condensed Avant Garde Bold Condensed Oblique Avant Garde Bold Avant Garde Bold Oblique ITC Avant Garde Gothic 25pt
ITC Avant Garde - Line weights and Styles
READABILITY AND LEGIBILITY ITC Avant Garde Gothic
ITC Avant Garde is legible at all point sizes. ?? 6 pt
ITC Avant Garde is legible at all point sizes. ?? 8pt
ITC Avant Garde is legible at all point sizes. ?? 11pt
ITC Avant Garde is legible at all point sizes. ?? 20pt
ITC Avant Garde is a display font meant to be used for headlines and short texts. 30pt
It cannot help but
Avant garde is not preferred for body text due to the extreme geometric shapes and width of the letterforms which create readability issues. Avant garde is not preferred for body text due to the extreme geometric shapes and width of the letterforms which create readability issues. Avant garde is not preferred for body text due to the extreme geometric shapes and width of the letterforms
therefore ideal for
draw attention to itself, and is
display text. 15pt
visual fatigue.
which create readability issues,and Avant garde is not preferred for body text due to the extreme geometric shapes and width of the letterforms which create readability issues. issues. Avant garde is not preferred for body text due to the extreme geometric shapes and width of the letterforms which create readability issues. Avant garde is not preferred for body text due to the extreme geometric shapes and width of the letterforms which create readability issues. 10pt
Letterforms built of circles and clean lines are highly effective for
,30 pt
15pt
bigger point size.
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COMPARISON With Other Similar Typefaces
Avant garde Gothic can be compared with Futura and Century Gothic based on their shared similarities and differences which cannot be overlooked. All the three typefaces belong to the same family of Geometric Sans serif typeface.
Century Gothic is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed for Monotype Imaging in 1991. It is a digital typeface that has never been made into actual foundry type. Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renne.
THIS IS AVANT GARDE. THIS IS CENTURY GOTHIC. THIS IS FUTURA. Century Gothic is a version of the successful Futura typeface, but with a larger x-height and more even stroke width. The Century Gothic face is distinct for its single-storey lowercase a and g. Century Gothic is more closely related to Avant Garde Gothic, designed by Herb Lubalin, and released by the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1970.
Century Gothic is similar to ITC Avant Garde in its pure geometry, and does not possess the subtle variation in stroke width found in either Futura or Twentieth Century. However, it differs from ITC Avant Garde in that Century Gothic does not have a descender on lowercase u (making it appear like a Greek upsilon ), whereas Avant Garde does.
Century Gothic also has larger, rounder tittles on letters such as i and j, whereas Avant Garde keeps the tittles square and the same width as the letter strokes.
CENTURY GOTHIC
FUTURA
AVANT GARDE
a a a O O O Being Geometric typefaces ,all these typefaces have Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; s that are almost perfect circles.Avant Garde in its pure geometry, and does not possess the subtle variation in stroke width found in Futura.
Distinct for its single-storey lowercase a and g.
u u u i i i M M M Century Gothic and Futura does not have a descender on lowercase u , whereas Avant Garde does. Century Gothic has a larger x-height and more even stroke width as compared to Futura.
Century Gothic and Futura have larger, rounder tittles on letters such as i and j, whereas Avant Garde keeps the tittles square and the same width as the letter stroke.
The M and the W of all the three typefaces are different in terms of the angle of the stems which are perpendicular in Avant garde and flared in Century Gothic and Futura.
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USAGE AND APPLICATION OF ITC Avant Garde Gothic
Experience has shown that it truly does only work in carefully crafted combinations that balance the tight requirements of the letterspacing with legibility.
ITC Avant Garde is a display font, meant to be used for headlines and short texts. Use it if you need a retro 70â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s look or want something that really stands out. It can be pretty difficult to actually use this font the way it was intended to be used.
Modern , Dynamic ITC Avant Garde Gothic is the currently main font for the logo of Meralco and
Bold and Contemporary The T.V series â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gleeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; uses ITC Avant Garde in lowercase for their identity.
Modern, Classy ITC Avant Garde Gothic is the font of the logo/name of the french producer David Guetta
Fashionable ITC Avant Garde Gothic is the typeface used for, Roparosa , fashion by Roos Van Der Kamp.
Futuristic, Bold, Elegance ďżź ďżź Logo for premium award winning salon in Manly, Sydney. 2009 - Identity Client- Cranium Design- Toko
Legibility, Organisation, Construction Logo for a Chocolate cafe uses Avant Garde Gothic for their identity.
Simple and clean City Church Welcome pack 2009- Corporate Identity, Information pack Client- City Church Belfast Design- Sort Design
Classic, modern Designers Institute of New Zealand- â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;09 Best Awards Campaign Design- Everything Design Photography- Sandii McDonald
Weight and geometry Strength of its character shapes Open Studios Cornwall 2007-2009-Event Identity and Marketing material Client- Creative Skills, Cornwall, UK Design-Two ‘Avant garde was a natural choice. Its distinctive capital ‘O’ is a perfect circle. It looks clean, crisp with good legibilty.’
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SAY WHAT? People and their Opinions
Steven Heller, one of Lubalin’s fellow AIGA medalists, notes that the “excessive number of ligatures were misused by designers who had no understanding of how to employ these typographic forms,” further commenting that “Avant Garde was Lubalin’s signature, in his hands it had character; in others’ it was a flawed Futura-esque face.”
“This is a bicameral stick-and-ball sanserif with very large x-height.” -Robert Bringhurst “For use in extensive text the font’s rigid, uniform strokes will create eye problems right away. Additionally, the perfect circles in the round characters begin to form light spots or ‘holes’ in the text that disturb the calm texture of columns of type.” -Fred
“The world’s most abused typeface.” -Tony DiSpigna, a partner of Lubalin
“A collection of such extreme shapes causes fatigue at text sizes and cannot help but draw attention to itself, which is arguably the greatest sin a typeface can commit.”
“If an elegant sans serif font is needed for both display and text, I recommend the Interstate family from the Font Bureau and Franklin Gothic from ITC for text and the less homogenized versions from Bitsream for display.” - Alex W. White
BIBLIOGRAPHY All the information presented in the Booklet has been compiled from the following sources. Links: www.thinkingforaliving.org/archives/147 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITC_Avant_Garde www.rightreading.com/typehead/avant_garde.htm typedeck.com http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/display-texttype/ Images taken from: google.com http://pinterest.com/chiliwasabi/avant-garde-typeface/ Book Referred: I Love Type Series Vol. 2 ( I Love Avant Garde)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly I would like to thank our guide,Tarun, for giving me such a wonderful typeface for my study and research and for being extremely patient and helpful throughout the course of this entire booklet, and making it an enlightening experience. I would also take this opportunity to express gratitude towards the Designers of Avant garde Gothic, Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase, for creating something that would be so “Avant Garde” and providing the world with an addictive Typeface that had ‘come to stay’. I also want to thank Mahendra Bhai for his technical guidance regarding the softwares and my seniors for their help and feedback and lastly all my batchmates for their constant motivation and support in the journey.
Thank You.
Noopur Choksi GDPD Graphic Design Sem 3, 2012-13 Typography Guide : Tarun Deep Girdher