1918-1981
Herbert F. Lubalin
Born in 1918, Herb Lubalin didnt have much of a histoy before high school, but while in high school, Lubalin showed no inclination toward a graphics career other than for repeated renditions of some highly erotic nude drawings of Tarzan and Jane, which quickly earned him a reputation as a dirty young man.
Herb Lubalin was both ambidextrous and color blind, but with most of his work being black and white typography no one would know.
Despite this success, he struggled in his early working life. He was fired from his first job at a display firm when he asked for a raise. Eventually he settled at Reiss Advertising and later moved to Sudler & Hennessey. After 20 years with the firm, he left in 1964 to start his own business designing posters, magazines, packaging, and identity solutions.
He was joined in business by Ernie Smith, Tom Carnase and Roger Ferriter. Together they formed LSC, Inc, and the company existed in various guises thereafter. During this period, he worked on two redesigns for the Saturday Evening Post, as well as designing Air Mail stamps and a masthead for Mother & Child magazine.
The first of Ginzburg and Lubalin’s three productions, Eros was a quarterly hardbound publication filled with articles and photo-essays relating to the topics of love and sex. During the radical 1960s the publication was received with both positive and negative reviews and Ginzburg was indicted under federal obscenity laws for the publication of the fourth issue. The combination of the high cost of the hardbound publication and the legal fees incurred during Ginzburg’s court case cause the magazine to close down.
Fact magazine was a similar venture by the two that was equally controversial, although it shifted the subject matter from sex to culture and politics. The magazine was sued by presidential candidate Barry Goldwater for their publication of an article that said Goldwater was psychologically unfit to be president of the United States. The punitive damages of the case caused the magazine to cease publication.
Ralph Ginzburg and Herb Lubalin worked together on the design scheme for the magazine. “It was a difficult collaboration”, Ginz burg remembers. “His first logo was in Hebrew. He thought that was funny. Then he did it in Coca-Cola script. We went through a dozen designs, all masterfully executed. But none felt right.”
As Herb Lubalin was driving to work the following morning from his home in Woodmere, New York, he suddenly pulled the car over to the side of the road. He rang Ralph Ginzburg from a telephone box, something he had never done before: “Ralph, I’ve got the answer. You’ll see.” And the rest is design history.
One day, Ginzburg and his wife Shoshana went to see the frustrated Herb Lubalin at his studio. They explained the concept of the planned publication again to him. “I asked him to picture a modern European airport”, Shoshana Ginzburg recalls. “‘Imagine a jet taking off the runway into the future.’ I used my hand to describe the plane flying skyward as an upward diagonal. He had me repeat that a couple of times.
The most notable of the three, Avant Garde was reminiscent of Eros in its hardbound format and controversial content. The magazine combined aspects of both Fact and Eros and published articles and imagery that were often sexual, critical of the American government and radically different than traditional publications. While there was no direct legal actions brought against Avant Garde it was forced to shut down when Ginzburg went to prison for the Eros scandal.
A logical consequence of this was the founding of the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) by Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns and Ed Rondthaler in 1970. The revolutionary idea behind ITC was that of a hardware-independent font library which would license its designs to typesetting equipment manufacturers. Until that point, Monotype, Linotype and Co. had used proprietary type designs, sometimes exchanging licenses or copying from one another. ITC’s aim was to create clarity from then on with regard to copyright protection for the type designer.
ITC’s first endurance test was the Avant Garde typeface itself, which was released amid considerable legal wrangling. Although Herb Lubalin owned the rights to the design, it was Ralph Ginzburg who held the name and trademark rights. He made them available free of charge on the condition that the font name was always marked with the copyright symbol ®. Lubalin and Burns ignored this demand, which angered Ginzberg. But he did not have the financial means to take action against the trademark violation.
Lubalin’s starting points were capitals in the style of a geometrical sans-serif typeface (known in the USA as a “Gothic”), something between Futura (#5 in this list) and Helvetica (#1 in this list) . Remembering Shoshana Ginzburg’s hand movement, he angularised the two As and the V in such a way that they fitted together like slices of cake. He halved the T, joining it to the N. The third A had one of its legs in the circular G, with the horizontal strokes coinciding. The R, D and E touched one other, so that the final result was two compact blocks of type. These became the unmistakeable Avant Garde logo.
After its phenomenal premiere, ITC soon released a serif version of Avant Garde, which was designed by Toni Di Spigna and given the name Lubalin Graph.
In 1970, together with Aaron Burns and Ed Rondthaler, he founded the International Type Corporation. Its typography magazine, U&lc (Upper & lower case), acted as a showcase for his designs and typographic experimentation.
Established in 1984, the Study Center was created in order to preserve an unprecedented resource, Herb Lubalin’s vast collection of work. Its goal was to provide the design community with a means to honor Lubalin, and to study his innovative work.
His constant search for something new and a passion for inventiveness made him one of the most successful art directors of the 20th century. He had offices internationally in Paris and London and partnered with many talented individuals over the years including Aaron Burns, Tom Carnase, Ernie Smith and Ralph Ginzburg. A graduate of the Cooper Union in New York he spent time as a visiting professor there as well as designed a logo for them. Constantly working and achieving much success throughout his career, at the age of 59 he proclaimed “I have just completed my internship.�
Sources “Type Worship.” Type Worship. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. “Fonts by Appearance.” Identifont. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. “Herb Lubalin.” ADC • Global Awards & Club. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. “100 Best Typefaces of All times.” 100 Best Typefaces of All times. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014 “The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography.” The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. “Eros, Fact, Avant Garde : Design Is History.” Eros, Fact, Avant Garde : Design Is History. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. “Herb Lubalin.” AIGA. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
“Hepushedbackwhatwere believedtobethe boundariesofdesign forentire generationsof designerswhoweretofollow. Forsuchaquiet,gentle persontohave accomplishedsomuchis testimonyindeedtothe powerofideasinthehandsof amaster.�