Herbert F. Lubalin (; March 17, 1918 – May 24, 1981) was an American
graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...
. He collaborated with
Ralph Ginzburg
Ralph Ginzburg (October 28, 1929 – July 6, 2006) was an American author, editor, publisher and photo-journalist. He was best known for publishing books and magazines on erotica and art and for his conviction in 1963 for violating federal obsce ...
on three of Ginzburg's magazines: ''
Eros
In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the earli ...
'',
''Fact'', and
''Avant Garde''. He designed the typeface,
ITC Avant Garde, for the last of these.
Biography
Herb Lubalin was born March 17, 1918 in New York. There he lived with his parents, older sister, and twin brother. His parents were very appreciative of the arts and were supportive of his artistic capabilities and talent. Early into his education, his parents realized that he was color blind.
Education and early career
Lubalin entered
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...
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.”
[Snyder, Gertrude. “Herb Lubalin: Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer.” ''Graphis: International Journal for Graphic and Applied Art'' 41 (Jan-Feb 1985): 56-67.]
After graduating in 1939, Lubalin had a difficult time finding work; he was fired from his job at a display firm after requesting a raise from $8/week (around US$100 in 2006 currency) to $10.
[“Pioneers: Herb Lubalin,” ''Communication Arts Magazine'' 41 (Mar-Apr 1999): 159.]
Lubalin would briefly land at Reiss Advertising, and then (in 1945) at
Sudler & Hennessey, where he worked for 19 years. Lubalin and
John J. Graham created the original NBC Peacock in 1957 at Sudler. The Cooper Union web book, ''100 Days of Herb Lubalin'' (day 46), displays a Sudler ad from the 1950s that shows
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
,
Art Kane
Art Kane (born Arthur Kanofsky; April 9, 1925 – February 3, 1995) was an American fashion and music photographer active from the 1950s through the early 1990s. He created many portraits of contemporary musicians, including Bob Dylan, Jefferson A ...
and
John Pistilli were among his employees.
Pistilli Roman (1964) was Lubalin's first typeface. Google Images show it later comprised the trademarks of Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic from 1978 to 1985.
In 1961 Lubalin designed the trademark for the ''
Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
,'' which it used for several years. His work redesigning the magazine was portrayed in a cover painting by
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...
.
Lubalin left Sudler to start his own firm, Herb Lubalin, Inc., in 1964.
Private practice
![PencilToPixel - 55 (8714439604)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/PencilToPixel_-_55_%288714439604%29.jpg)
Lubalin created the trademark for the World Trade Center at its opening (1973). He designed versions of ''
Reader's Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...
'', ''
New Leader
''The New Leader'' (1924–2010) was an American political and cultural magazine.
History
''The New Leader'' began in 1924 under a group of figures associated with the Socialist Party of America, such as Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. It was p ...
'' and the entire series of ''Eros'' magazine, the last of which was the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case on obscenity, ''
Ginzburg v. United States'' 383 U.S. 463 (1966).
[Obituary of Herb Lubalin, ''New York Times'' May 26, 1981, page D12]
''Eros Magazine'' and ''Fact Magazine''
In Lubalin's private studio, he worked on a number of wide-ranging projects, from poster and magazine design to packaging and identity solutions. It was here that he became best known for his work on a series of magazines published by
Ralph Ginzburg
Ralph Ginzburg (October 28, 1929 – July 6, 2006) was an American author, editor, publisher and photo-journalist. He was best known for publishing books and magazines on erotica and art and for his conviction in 1963 for violating federal obsce ...
: ''Eros'', ''Fact'', and ''Avant Garde''.
[Meggs, Philip B. “Two Magazines of the Turbulent ‘60s: a ‘90s Perspective.” ''Print'' 48 (Mar-Apr 1994): 68-77 .]
''Eros'' (four issues, Spring 1962 to 1963) devoted itself to the beauty of the rising sense of sexuality and experimentation, particularly in the burgeoning
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
. It was a quality production with no advertising, and the large format (13 by 10 inches) made it look like a book rather than a quarterly magazine. It was printed on varying papers and the editorial design was some of the greatest that Lubalin ever did. It quickly folded after an obscenity case brought by the US Postal Service.
Ginzburg and Lubalin followed with ''Fact'', largely founded in response to the treatment ''Eros'' received. This magazine's inherent anti-establishment sentiment lent itself to outsider writers who could not be published in mainstream media; ''Fact'' managing editor Warren Boroson noted that “most American magazine, emulating the ''
Reader's Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...
'', wallow in sugar and everything nice; ''Fact'' has had the spice all to itself.”
Rather than follow with a shocking design template for the publication, Lubalin chose an elegant
minimalist
In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
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 result was one of dynamic minimalism that emphasized the underlying sentiment of the magazine better than “the scruffy homemade look of the underground press
r thescreaming typography of sensationalist tabloids” ever could.
''Fact'' itself folded in controversy as ''Eros'' before it, after being sued for several years by Barry Goldwater, the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
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.
''Avant Garde''
Logo
The creation of the magazine's
logogram
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...
proved difficult, largely due to the inherent difficulties presented by the incompatible
letterform
A letterform, letter-form or letter form, is a term used especially in typography, palaeography, calligraphy and epigraphy to mean a letter's shape. A letterform is a type of glyph, which is a specific, concrete way of writing an abstract ch ...
combinations in the title. Lubalin's solution consisted of tight-fitting letterform combinations to create a futuristic, instantly recognizable identity.
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
The International Typeface Corporation (ITC) was a type manufacturer founded in New York in 1970 by Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin and Edward Rondthaler. The company was one of the world's first type foundries to have no history in the production of ...
in 1970.
Steven Heller, one of Lubalin's fellow
AIGA
The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity ...
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.”
[Heller, Steven. “Herb Lubalin: Rule Basher.” ''U & lc'' 25 (Summer 1998): 8-11.]
Page design
''Avant Garde'' (14 issues, January 1968 to 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.
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.”
Other issues included a portfolio of
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
's oft-neglected erotic
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
s, 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, playing a pivotal role in the
International Typeface Corporation
The International Typeface Corporation (ITC) was a type manufacturer founded in New York in 1970 by Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin and Edward Rondthaler. The company was one of the world's first type foundries to have no history in the production of ...
and its typographic journal ''U&lc'' (short for ''Upper and lower case''). 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.”
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.”
[David R. Brown, “Herb Lubalin,” ''AIGA'' (1981), http://www.aiga.org (accessed August 15, 2006).]
References
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)
*Adrian Shaughnessy
"Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer" London: Unit Editions (2012).
External links
Herb Lubalin Quotes to Inspire Graphic DesignersHerb Lubalin's Final U&lc
An Interview with Mr. Herb Lubalin1969)
"Individualism Squelchers" by Herb Lubalin1966)
Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work''Eros'' magazine– all four issues with various related resources, archival project by
Mindy Seu
Mindy Seu (born 1991) is an American designer and researcher whose work focuses on public engagement with digital archives. She is best known for her ''Cyberfeminism Index'' project and publications, and is currently on the faculty at Rutgers Mason ...
The life, work, and afterlife of Herb Lubalin by the Herb Lubalin Study Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubalin, Herbert
1918 births
1981 deaths
AIGA medalists
American graphic designers
Cooper Union alumni
Logo designers
American typographers and type designers
American magazine founders