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Ed Benguiat loves to draw letters. When he’s not creating a new typeface, he can usually be found working on a piece of hand-lettering or a logo design for one of his hundreds of clients. The addiction is pervasive: in restaurants he sketches new alphabets on napkins, in business meetings he doodles in Spencerian script, and his greeting cards are always hand-lettered works of art. Benguiat (pronounced BEN-gat) has drawn more than six hundred typefaces, possibly more than any other type designer. His work includes faces for International Typeface Corporation, PhotoLettering Inc., and for corporate clients such as AT&T and The New York Times. Some of his designs are revivals of old metal faces; these include ITC Souvenir and ITC Bookman. Others, are completely original. And long before sophisticated type manipulation software was available, Benguiat was creating new typefaces by “sampling” features of existing designs. ITC Tiffany and ITC Barcelona are both examples of his ability to take design traits from existing typefaces and meld them into a new design.

Born in Brooklyn, Benguiat’s innate design talent was demonstrated when he graduated from high school and successfully forged a photostat of his birth certificate, which he used to join the army during World War II and was accepted into the Air Corps. When he returned to civilian life, Benguiat followed his first professional dream as a drummer: He traded in his joy stick for his drum sticks and began to work as a big band jazz drummer. He recalls, even a good drummer could be out of work more often than not. Ed enrolled in the Workshop School of Art with the intention of becoming an illustrator. His first break as a lettering artist was basically a fluke. “I was working at a studio and the person responsible for lettering got sick and the studio needed a lettering job done,” he recalls. “I said I could do it. I figured I could do anything, until somebody told me differently. I did the job, and I’ve been drawing letters ever since.”

He’s taught at the School of Visual Arts for more than 30 years and thousands of students have been exposed to his wit, and extraordinary talent. and found inspiration in Ed’s love of letters. Many have gone on to build typographic design careers of their own. Ed is not a complex guy, but he is very wise. He knows what makes him happy, he knows his skills, and he is absolutely devoted to his ideals of always doing his very best. He works hard at his craft. Even at a time in life when others would be content to rest on their laurels and continues to do what he loves.

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I N T E R V I E W  | 1800h | 14.02.09 |  view programme

From New Zealand, Dutch group Typeradio will talk with Ed Benguiat (in New York), on type, design and more ... A video interview evening screening at Shed 11 on Valentine’s day.

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About the images
SVA (School of Visual Arts) TDC Award  2007 | School of Visual Arts script – designed and all hand-lettered by Ed Benguiat, August 2008 | Planet of the Apes – motion picture series logos designed by Ed Benguiat

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