Tuesday Type is a fortnightly feature showcasing a chosen font. Today’s type is ITC Avant Garde by The International Typeface Corporation (ITC).
ITC Avant Garde Gothic is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase in 1970, based on Lubalin’s logo for Avant Garde Magazine. It features geometric shapes constructed from circles and straight lines, reminiscent of the Bauhaus movement in the 1920s. The early versions were known for their unique alternates and ligatures, capturing the typographic spirit of the 1970s.
While the fonts in this family contain the basic alphabets without the unusual ligatures, ITC Avant Garde Gothic retains its strong and modern appearance. Its large open counters and tall x-heights make it suitable for short texts and headlines, with a friendly and legible aesthetic.
The condensed weights were drawn by Ed Benguiat in 1974, and the obliques were designed by André Gürtler, Erich Gschwind, and Christian Mengelt in 1977. The typeface family consists of five weights and four condensed designs, each with corresponding italics (obliques).
ITC Avant Garde Gothic was licensed by the International Typeface Corporation (ITC), a pioneering digital type foundry established in New York in 1970. ITC was one of the first type foundries without a history in metal type production and is now a wholly-owned brand of Monotype Imaging, a company providing design assets, technology, and expertise for creating impactful and authentic brands.
ITC Avant Garde Gothic is available directly from Monotype or through the following outlets:
Adobe Fonts (via Creative Cloud)
My Fonts
Paratype