Date: 1985
Designer:
Tony Stan / Ed Benguiat
Foundry:
ITC
Location:
New York, USA
Current equivalent:
ITC Garamond
See also:
Apple Garamond
Technologies:
Photosetting
Postscript
Opentype
Famous for:
Widely used advertising face.
Applications: Book Publishing & General Purpose Text Setting
Ubiquity:
Very widely used
Category:
20th century Serif Roman
Stress: Angled
Serifs: Oblique
Design history:
The advertising art director's favourite; a controversial redrawing of Garamond that conformed to the 1970s ITC house style that used enlarged x-heights and interchangeable serifs. Drawn from earlier 20th century American types like the ATF Garamond, which were in turn based on a misattribution, the result is arguably NOT Garamond. Polarising opinion among designers in a similar way to Helvetica (by its overuse as much as its misuse), people using this type either love it or loathe it. Available in a wide range of weights and styles, it was extensively marketed in the USA and found favour as a kind of default choice in advertising.
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