Herb Lubalin

Herb Lubalin
Herb Lubalin's studio logo.
Born Herbert F. (Herb) Lubalin
March 17, 1918
Died May 24, 1981 (1981-05-25) (aged 63)
Other names The king of typography.
Occupation Type designer, graphic designer

Herbert F. "Herb" Lubalin (/ˈluːbɑːlɪn/; March 17, 1918 – May 24, 1981) was an American graphic designer. He collaborated with Ralph Ginzburg on three of Ginzburg's magazines: Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde, and was responsible for the creative visual beauty of these publications. He designed a typeface, ITC Avant Garde, for the last of these; this font could be described as a reproduction of art-deco, and is seen in logos created in the 1990s and 2000s.

Education and early career

Herb Lubalin entered Cooper Union at the age of seventeen, and quickly became entranced by the possibilities presented by typography as a communicative implement. Gertrude Snyder notes that during this period Lubalin was particularly struck by the differences in interpretation one could impose by changing from one typeface to another, always “fascinated by the look and sound of words (as he) expanded their message with typographic impact.”[1] After graduating in 1939, Lubalin had a difficult time finding work; he was fired from his job at a display firm after requesting a two dollar raise on his weekly salary, up from a paltry eight (around USD100 in 2006 currency).[2] Lubalin would briefly land at Reiss Advertising, and then (in 1945) at Sudler & Hennessey, where he worked for 19 years. According to the New York Times, 9-2-88, p. A3, Lubalin and John J. Graham created the original NBC Peacock in 1957 at Sudler. The Cooper Union web book, LUBALIN 100 (day 46), displays a Sudler ad from the 1950's that shows Andy Warhol, Art Kane and John Pistilli were among his employees. In the American Showcase book HERB LUBALIN, p. 34, Pistilli Roman was Lubalin's first typeface (1964). Google Images shows it later comprised the trademarks of Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic from 1978-85. The above American Showcase book, p. 78, reprints the Saturday Evening Post trademark Lubalin did at Sudler (1961), used through most of the 60's, and the Saturday Evening Post cover-painting that Norman Rockwell did of Lubalin redesigning the magazine. Lubalin left Sudler to start his own firm, Herb Lubalin, Inc., in 1964 .

Private practice

The Cooper Union web book, LUBALIN 100 (day 19), shows the trademark he created for the World Trade Center at its opening.[3] In his New York Times obituary (5-26-81, p. D12) it states he designed versions of Reader's Digest, New Leader and the entire series of Eros magazine, the latter the basis of the U. S, Supreme Court case on obsecenity, Ginzburg v. United States, 383 U.S. 463 (1966).

Eros Magazine and Fact Magazine

Lubalin’s private studio gave him the freedom to take on any number of wide-ranging projects, from poster and magazine design to packaging and identity solutions. It was here that the designer became best known, particularly for his work with a succession of magazines published by Ralph Ginzburg: Eros, Fact, and Avahat “most American magazine, emulating the Reader's Digest, wallow in sugar and everything nice; Fact has had the spice all to itself.”[4] Rather than follow with a shocking design template for the publication, Lubalin chose an elegant minimalist palette consisting of dynamic serifed typography balanced by high-quality illustrations. The magazine was printed on a budget, so Lubalin stuck with black and white printing on uncoated paper, as well as limiting himself to one or two typefaces and paying a single artist to handle all illustrations at bulk rate rather than dealing with multiple creators. The end result was one of dynamic minimalism that emphasized the underlying sentiment of the magazine better than “the scruffy homemade look of the underground press (or the) screaming typography of sensationalist tabloids” ever could.[4] Fact itself folded in controversy as Eros before it, after being sued for several years by Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential candidate about whom Fact wrote an article entitled “The Unconscious of a Conservative: A special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater.” Goldwater was awarded a total of $90,000, effectively putting Fact out of business.[4]

Avant Garde

Lubalin and Ginzburg again turned one magazine’s demise into the creation of another, releasing Avant Garde six months later. The creation of the magazine’s logogram proved difficult, largely due to the inherent difficulties presented by the incompatible letterform combinations in the title. Lubalin’s solution, one which sought to meet Ginzburg’s hope for an expression of “the advanced, the innovative, the creative,” consisted of tight-fitting letterform combinations to create a futuristic, instantly recognizable identity.[4] The demand for a complete typesetting of the logo was extreme in the design community, so Lubalin released ITC Avant Garde from his International Typeface Corporation in 1970. Unfortunately, Lubalin quickly realized that Avant Garde was widely misunderstood and misused in poorly thought-out solutions, eventually becoming a stereotypical 1970s font due to overuse. Steven Heller, one of Lubalin’s fellow AIGA medalists, notes that the “excessive number of ligatures [ . . . ] were misused by designers who had no understanding of how to employ these typographic forms,” further commenting that “Avant Garde was Lubalin’s signature, and in his hands it had character; in others’ it was a flawed Futura-esque face.”[5] Regardless of ITC Avant Garde’s future uses, Lubalin’s original magazine logo was and remains highly influential in typographic design.

Page design

Avant Garde (January 1968 to issue 14 summer 1971) also provided Lubalin with a large format of wide typographic experimentation; the page format was an almost square 11.25 by 10.75 inches bound in a cardboard cover, a physical quality that, coupled with Lubalin’s layouts, caught the attention of many in the New York design scene.[4] Often, the magazine would employ full-page typographic titles, which at the time was a largely new idea; in recent times, Rolling Stone art director Fred Woodward has used this method widely in his publication. Ginzburg, who held some experience as a photographer, gave Lubalin total control over the magazine’s look: “Herb brought a graphic impact. I never tried to overrule him, and almost never disagreed with him.”[4] Other issues included a portfolio of Picasso’s oft-neglected erotic engravings, which Lubalin willingly combined with his own aesthetic, printing them in a variety of colors, in reverse, or on disconcerting backgrounds. Unfortunately, Avant Garde again caught the eye of censors after an issue featuring an alphabet spelled out by nude models; Ralph Ginzburg was sent to prison, and publication ceased with a still-growing circulation of 250,000.

U&lc magazine

Lubalin spent the last ten years of his life working on a variety of projects, notably his typographic journal U&lc and the newly founded International Typographic Corporation. U&lc (short for Upper and lower case) served as both an advertisement for Lubalin’s designs and a further plane of typographic experimentation; Steven Heller argues that U&lc was the first Emigre, or at least the template for its later successes, for this very combination of promotion and revolutionary change in type design. Heller further notes, “In U&lc, he tested just how far smashed and expressive lettering might be taken. Under Lubalin’s tutelage, eclectic typography was firmly entrenched.”[5] Lubalin enjoyed the freedom his magazine provided him; he was quoted as saying “Right now, I have what every designer wants and few have the good fortune to achieve. I’m my own client. Nobody tells me what to do.”[6]

References

  1. ↑ Snyder, Gertrude. “Herb Lubalin: Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer.” Graphis: International Journal for Graphic and Applied Art ISSN 0017-3452 41 (Jan-Feb 1985): 56-67.
  2. ↑ “Pioneers: Herb Lubalin,” Communication Arts Magazine ISSN 0010-3519 41 (Mar-Apr 1999): 159.
  3. ↑ "Day 19: 4 April 2018, World Trade Center". Lubalin 100. Herb Lubalin Study Center. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Meggs, Philip B. “Two Magazines of the Turbulent ‘60s: a ‘90s Perspective.” Print 48 (Mar-Apr 1994): 68-77 OCLC 201042699.
  5. 1 2 Heller, Steven. “Herb Lubalin: Rule Basher.” U & lc ISSN 0362-6245 25 (Summer 1998): 8-11.
  6. ↑ David R. Brown, “Herb Lubalin,” AIGA (1981), http://www.aiga.org (accessed August 15, 2006).

New York Times ,9-2-88, p. A 3, corrections

Further reading

  • Gertrude Snyder; Herb Lubalin; Alan Peckolick. "Herb Lubalin: art director, graphic designer, and typographer". New York: American Showcase (1985) OCLC 12175480
  • Adrian Shaughnessy. "Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer". London: Unit Editions (2012). ISBN 978-0-9562071-6-6
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