Famed designer and typeface expert Ed Benguiat died on Thursday, October 15, 2020. His talent spawned more than 600 typefaces and thousands of design projects, including the logos for Ford and AT&T, and mastheads for The New York Times, Esquire, Look, and McCalls. He helped establish the International Typeface Corporation (ITC), and he taught for nearly 50 years at the School of Visual Arts.
Benguiat was a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and past president of the Type Directors Club. He received the gold medal for excellence from the New York Type Directors Club and won the Fredric W. Goudy Award.
Lesser known facts about Benguiat: His father Jack was display director of Bloomingdales. Ed Benguiat’s first “project” was doctoring type on his own birth certificate so that he appeared to be old enough to join the Army in World War II, and he began his professional career as jazz ensemble drummer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/business/media/ed-benguiat-dead.html