Love & Guilt & The Meaning of Life, Etc.

Love & Guilt & The Meaning of Life, Etc. by Judith Viorst. Published by Simon & Schuster, 1979. Cover design by Herb Lubalin, with illustrations by John Alcorn.

The typeface family used throughout the book – from dust jacket to title page and text – is ITC Benguiat, distinguished by its long, spikey serifs and the hooked ampersand. It’s set tightly spaced, as it was popular in the 1970s. The endpapers and section dividers show lines in lowercase italic letters, put on a dramatic angle.

Top image via DCMNTS, Scott Lindberg’s archive of important 20th century graphic design. He writes:

Herb Lubalin & John Alcorn. What a great combination!
Full page illustrations by Alcorn appear on every spread, opposite Lubalin’s robust typographic treatments. The cover is just frosting on the cake.

Designed by Ed Benguiat, ITC Benguiat was released in January 1978 by the International Typeface Corporation, an influential phototype manufacturer and the first independent licensor for typeface designers. The company was started in 1970 by Lubalin together with Aaron Burns and Edward Rondthaler of Photo-Lettering, Inc. (PLINC). Ed Benguiat, who had served as typographic design director of PLINC since 1962, was involved in ITC, too, eventually as Vice President.

In 1973, Benguiat partnered with Lubalin to launch Upper and Lowercase, The International Journal of Typographics, better known as U&lc. [Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives] Benguiat (the typeface) was advertised in U&lc, Vol. 5, No. 1, March 1978. John Alcorn’s illustrations were frequently featured in ITC’s acclaimed magazine, too, for example in Vol. 3, No. 3; Vol. 4, No. 4; and on the cover of Vol. 5, No. 2.

Nowadays, ITC Benguiat is best known for its use for the titles of the Netflix show Stranger Things (2016) and various movies by Quentin Tarantino.

The images below are from Tenth Letter of the Alphabet, an equally fantastic design resource maintained by Alex Jay.