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A Type House Divided

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Ed Benguiat A Man of Letters

Steven Heller

talks with David Senior about THE ELECTRO-LIBRARY

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Biggest Influential Designs

Mike Joyce

Mike Joyce has built a stellar reputation designing for the music industry. The CD might be on the way out, but his company, Stereotype Design, continues to make some amazing music packaging.

“...I didn’t even know what graphic design was, but I decided that was what I wanted to do.”

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Anything but Conventional

Mike Joyce

Mike Joyce is the founder of one-man New York studio Stereotype Design, and he’s thinking back to the 2003 album cover he designed for the iconic American singer.

It’s a project he says his 15-year-old self would be proud to have worked on, and in just a few minutes he’s also mentioned Aretha Franklin, Katy Perry, The Lemonheads and even the bizarre new supergroup New Kids on the Backstreet Boys. They’re just a small selection of the artists that Joyce has worked with since launching the studio back in 1995.

Creating packaging, branding and posters for the music industry is Stereotype’s speciality. Despite the massive shift towards download seen in the last five years, the packaging side of things is still keeping Joyce busy.

“Every year I feel like, ‘Well, I’ll probably do less CDs and less vinyl this year.’ Who knows? It’s a strange thing but I still end up doing five packages a month.”

Music packaging is often seen as a dying sector, but opportunities continue to open up for Joyce. Sony Music Entertainment’s catalogue division, Legacy Recordings, is one new client. Legacy repackages and re-issues music, often with deluxe extras thrown in for fans who still go to the trouble of purchasing CDs or vinyl. According to Joyce, this makes for dream projects. The re-packaged product included designs for a vinyl LP cover, a double-disc CD/DVD case, poster interior and a 24-page book containing expanded liner notes. When working on retro projects like this, Joyce is sometimes able to go into the design archives of major record companies to fish around for inspiration. Indulging his curiosity, he can sift through unused material, which he might combine with fresh ideas for the project.

He’ll listen to the album and do a bit of research about the band and their past activities, and look at their website. He might receive a brief from the label, or the band’s agent, but sometimes he’ll work directly with the artist. Occasionally, they’ll even come down to his studio to collaborate. Six months ago he worked on the packaging for This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars, a band fronted by American actor Jared Leto. All their previous material had a strong red and black theme, sat alongside detailed photography.

Joyce works on plenty of new releases as well, where all sorts of factors become part of his creative process.

One of Joyce’s favourite jobs was creating the cover for Iggy Pop’s 2003 Skull Ring album. He even named his pet rabbit after the rock icon “I totally went into that designing all these red, black and white things for him, and Jared called me up and said, ‘No, no, no, no. I totally want to get away from that. I’m so tired of people thinking of us as red, black, white and silver.’ He came over here and we shot a few ideas around, and

the cure, 1985

husker du, 1982

radiohead, 1997

the stooges, 1974

new york dolls, 1975

pixies, 1986

guided by voices, 1994

david bowie, 1972

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misfits, 1982

we ended up doing something bold and typographic, with just bright, fluorescent colours and stuff, so it was really different for them,” explains Joyce.

The bold type and vivid colours used for This is War fit right into Joyce’s approach to design, which derives from two very different influences. Firstly, there’s the punk rock aesthetic, dating back to his youth: “I just loved album packaging,” he says, “and I always remember the first time I got a Sex Pistols record. I was like, ‘This really jumps out!’ I didn’t even know what graphic design was but I decided that was what I wanted to do.”

Later, when he came under the tuition of Swiss designer Fred Troller at Alfred University’s School of Art and Design in New York State, a new interest in typography bloomed. “I really started to fall in love with that Swiss modernist style of Armin Hoffman and Josef Muller Brockmann,” he continues. “What I really took from it was how expressive it was. I know that the foundation is grid-like and really very structured, but I’m looking at an Armin Hoffman poster here in my studio right now and to me it’s such expressive typography.”

Article found on: http://www.creativebloq.com/computer-arts/ mike-joyce-anything-conventional-9118556

black flag, 1981

Mike Joyce’s Swiss Style For Mike Joyce, the mastermind behind Swissted, a vibrant new book of Swiss, modern-inspired, vintage rock posters, there’s more to punk than orange Mohawks. “The true sense of punk is thinking for yourself—having no limits—no rules,” says Joyce.

As a teenager growing up in Albany, NY, in the early ‘80s, Joyce was drawn to the magnetic energy of the hardcore shows playing in local skeezy bars. “There were no rock-star barriers, and I think that was one things I’ve always loved about the music: that it’s just people getting up on stage and ripping through awesome sets.”

beastie boys, 1983

Mike Joyce

bikini kill, 1993

jawbreaker, 1993

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Typographic Faux Pas

Avoid bad punctuation and type-crimes at your new job, who needs that type of attention?

Type Tips 6 Vertex

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Do not stretch text Stretch Use proper kerning Thespacingbetweenapairof letters.

Not very readable.

Too many typefaces 13 Typographic Faux Pas

Form over function Form over Function Using all caps

IT BECOMES REALLY DIFFICULT TO READ.

Not fixing ragged edges For centered or non-justified text, avoid obvious shapes (like pyramids, steps, wedges, angles and long lines).

Check Spelling I canot spel anytheng.

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Indenting too far

The standard indent for a paragraph is 1 em, not 1⁄ 2 inch.

Eliminate widows

A word that sits on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph.

Inconsistent leading When the spaces in between each line are different widths

Proper Tracking

do: tracking don’t do: t r a c k i n g

Use Proper Size

Don’t use over 12pt for body copy.

H&J’s

Make sure to adjust hyphenations and justification to aviod rivers and hyphenations.

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ED BENGUIAT A MAN OF LETTERS

Ed Benguiat

Heroes

Ed received the usual education. During World War II, he wasn’t old enough to enter the armed service, so with a forged photostat of his birth certificate, he enlisted in the Army. After his stint in the Air Corps he traded his airplane control stick for drumsticks and continued the burgeoning percussionist career he had started before the war.

Ed became established as a talented progressive Jazz musician under the name Eddie Benart, and played with numerous big bands such as Stan Kenton, Claude Thornhill and Woody Herman, but preferred the New York gigs on 52nd Street, particularly at The Three Deuces. “It kept me in town; going on the road with big bands was a drag, and tough.” During that time a Metronome magazine poll picked Ed as the number three sideman.

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At the School of Visual Arts—where about thirty years ago Silas Rhodes gave him a job—Ed compares graphic design and typography to the rhythm and balance of a musical composition.

While playing on 52nd Street, Ed made use of the G.I. Bill and enrolled at the Workshop School of Advertising Art. He wanted to draw nudes like some of the wellknown illustrators. His drawing teacher advised him to quit. Benguiat persisted. His first job as an illustrator was as a cleavage retoucher for a movie magazine.

“You might think I was adding to the bust. No way! I was taking the cleavage away,” he said, indicating the reaction of the motion picture industry to the crackdown on obscenity in movies. It was obvious that Ed couldn’t draw too well, so he went in the direction of layout, design, typography, and calligraphy. He

became Paul Standard’s prodigy. Once out of school, Ed established an impressive career as a designer and art director at a number of large and small publishing houses, studios, and ad agencies. Opening his own firm did not take too long. Enter Photo-Lettering Inc. and Ed Ronthaler. They saved Ed’s life financially by making him art director.

One way or another, just about everyone in the graphic community has had some contact with Ed. He’s a neighborhood guy. Admittedly, most know him as the guy who sat in his cramped, cluttered office on 45th Street that had just enough room to swing his pen or brush.

Benguiat’s impact on the type community involves

American’s most profilic typographer and lettering artist. Benguiat has crafted over 600 typeface designs, here are just a few of his gems...

Ed Benguiat, logos

more than just design. He played a critical role in establishing The International Typeface Corporation, the first independent licensing company for type designers. Ed and ITC jump-started the type industry in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Founded in 1971 by designers Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns, and Ed Ronthaler, ITC was formed to market type to the industry. Lubalin and Burns contacted Benguiat, whose first ITC project was working on Souvenir. Originally a singleweight face designed

by Morris Fuller Benton in the 1920s, Benguiat redrew it with additional weights and italics. Now, Souvenir is the face everybody loves to hate. It was lTC’s best seller, and Ed did a beautiful job. It’s not his fault it’s become a cliché.

• ITC Century Handtooled • ITC Avant Garde Gothic • ITC Barcelona • Benguiat Bold • Ed InterlockEd Gothic • Ed Brush • Ed Script • Bauhaus • Korinna

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Ed became a partner with Lubalin in the development of U&lc, lTC’s award-winning magazine, and the creation of new typefaces such as Tiffany, Benguiat, Benguiat Gothic, Korinna, Panache, Modern No. 216, Bookman, Caslon No. 225, Barcelona, Avant Garde Condensed, and many more. This added to the more than 400 faces he’d already created for Photo-Lettering. With Herb Lubalin Ed eventually became vice president of ITC until its sale to Esselte Ltd. Ed continues to design faces for lTC, including, most recently, Edwardian Script. He is also known for his designs or redesigns of the logotypes for Esquire, The New York Times, McCall’s, Reader’s Digest, Photography, Look, Sports Illustrated, The Star Ledger, The San Diego Tribune, Garamond AT&T, A&E, Estée Lauder, U&lc…the list goes on and on. You name it, he’s done it.

Heroes

Benguiat has a beef. It’s that too many young designers substitute technology for talent. “Too many people think that they’ve got a Mac and they can draw a logo or a typeface. You have to learn to draw first. The computer won’t do it for you”. Although he laments that student designers show more interest in learning the computer than mastering the art of designing letterforms, Benguiat is growing optimistic about the technology behind computer-assisted type design.

Professor Benguiat is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a past president of the Type Directors Club. In 1990, he received the gold medal for excellence from the New York Type Directors Club, and won the prestigious Fredric W. Goudy Award. Benguiat continues a busy lecture and exhibit circuit that takes him to Paris, Berlin, Brazil, Slovenia, London, Chicago, Washington, and New York, where he is an instructor at The School of Visual Arts. In 1995, SVA honored him with Teacher of the Year.

Ed Benguiat, sketchnotes

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Article found on: http://adcglobal.org/hall-of-fame/ edward-benguiat/

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o 3 under thirty

Top young graphic designers to watch for.

Rebecca Marmaroff

Rebecca Marmaroff is attending Farmingdale State College for Visual Communications. Throughout her life, she had always loved art. She had grown an interest in photography because her father enjoys it and he went to college for it. So, she decided to take Photography as a sophomore in High School. Since she grew up with my dad always talking about photography, she learned a lot before she even took the course. After a few weeks in the class, she had realized her teacher had very strong opinions toward everybodies work. One day she would love a picture, and then the next day she would change her mind. Art is a very opinionated thing. For example, some art museums hang up artwork with just a red dot on a white canvas. Anyone could produce the same piece. Compared to others, it may have a deeper meaning to them.

In the Fall semester of 2013, one assignment Rebecca’s teacher had given her was to enter a photo contest. The criteria of the contest was “The Magic of a Moment.” She wanted to enter one photo called Red Desire, but Rebecca’s teacher had told Rebecca that her work wouldn’t get her very far in the contest. She continued to go through Rebecca’s other photos and chose one that wasn’t as strong. Rebecca did not want to enter the one her teacher had chose, because she had felt that wasn’t her best work.

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Modern

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Oldstyle Garamond-1615- small x-height, diagonal stress, small coarse serifs. ex. Aa Transitional Baskerville-1757- vertical stress, greater contrast between thick and thins, bracketed serifs. ex. Aa Modern Bodoni-1788- extreme contrast between thick and thins, vertical stress, hairline serifs without bracketing. ex. Aa Slab Serif Century-1894- minimal variation between thick thins, heavy block serifs, vertical stress. ex. Aa Sans Serif Helvetica-1957- no variation between thick and thins, no serifs, no stress. ex. Aa

Slab Serif

type families, 2017

Despite her opinion, Rebecca went with her gut feeling and decided to enter the photograph anyway. A few weeks after she had entered the contest, her teacher came up to Rebecca during class and informed her that she had won the contest. She apologized, and congratulated Rebecca.

Rebecca was estatic. A few days later, there was a ceremony where Rebecca had received her recognition and certificate.

During the Spring Semester of 2016, Rebecca’s Professor had encouraged their class to enter any of their artwork to the Babylon Art Festival that BACCA holds. Rebecca decided last minute that she would enter Red Desire one more time. Luckily enough, she had received an Award of Excellence and was offered a $800 scholarship.

President John Nader, Rebecca Marmaroff, Geroge Fernandez standing with Red Desire, 2016

YOU MISS

100%

SHOTS of the

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In the Summer of 2016, Rebecca had received an email from the Chair of the Visual Communications Program informing her that President John Nader of Farmingdale State College had asked if Rebecca’s work could be hung up in his house on campus. She never knew her artwork would get that far. President Nader and his family, invited her and the Visual Communications Professors over to his house one night for dinner to thank her for letting him hang her artwork up in his house.

Rebecca said, “I was so honored to be given these opportunities.”

This has taught her to take criticism, but still go with her gut feeling. She took a risk that she normally wouldn’t take. Rebecca said, “It made me feel more confident about my artwork and I now go with my gut opinion despite the risks it takes.”

-WAYNE GRETZKY-

vintage poster, 2017

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