INTRO The 1970s were a time of transition for the United States. The decade when the environmental movement went mainstream, the home computer was introduced, the Beatles broke up and of course the unforgettable time when punk rock was born. A famous icon in the early seventies was Herb Lubalin, a prominent American graphic designer. He collaborated with Ralph Ginzburg on four of Ginzburg’s magazines: Eros, Fact Magazine, Fact and Avant Grade. Lubalin was responisble for the creative visual beauty of these publications. So here is a short visual beauty taking you through Avant Garde, the magazine, logo and it’s movement into a typeface.
LU ALIN
god ” damn Herb Lubalin was a tenacious typographer who left-handedly wielded a razor blade on type proofs to shuffle hairline spaces between letters, to shorten or lengthen the serifs, and to adjust ascenders and descenders to his fussy satisfaction. His intricate design works holds a range from post age stamps, packaging and advertising, to the preparation of travelling exhibits for the United States government. His use of available production methods allowed him to underline the drama inherent in the message. Idea preceded design. Art, typography and copy was all part of his graphic content. Lubalin showed great contrast from his lowpressure personality to him thriving on long hours of work in the high pressured environment of graphics and advertising. An impeccable professional. If Herb would look at something his staff had done and he admired it, he would murmur his ultimate praise: “Goddamn”. He loved working with people who understood ideas. Ironically his colour selectivity was exquisite, he was colour blind. He could see red and green clearly but couldn’t estimate the values of red and green in other colours. He was fond of Victoriana, and accumulated Art Nouveau posters before it became fashionable.
RALPH GINZBURG A taboo- busting editor and publisher who helped set off the sexual revolution in the 1960’s with Eros magazine. Publication began of Eros began in 1962. Herb Lubalin was the art director and second on the masthead. Ginzburg was imprisoned for sending it through the United States mail in a case decided by the Supreme Court. He had a talent for the mail-order business, especially writing attention-grabbing promotional advertisements. He wed his business and publishing instincts to social activism. His eventual conviction on the obscenity charge was focused not on the content of his publications but on their promotions. Evidently, much of his copy is outrageous, and highly attention grabbing. Mr. Gizburg went on to write several books and to publish two other magazines, Avant Garde and Moneysworth.
I have always felt that I might have become a major force in American publishing had it not been for my conviction. Instead, I’m just a curious footnote.
MAGAZINE Eros magazine was the launching pad that propelled Lubalin into the spotlight spreading his name to a new generation. Eros magazine was a quarterly hardbound periodical containing articles and photo-essays on love and sex. “I didn’t know what to make of him, which is the reaction of most, meeting him for the first time. He seemed unresponsive, yet when we talked about design problems, his solutions were instantaneous and breath-taking. There was no design problem he couldn’t tackle with ease and gusto”. Ralph Ginzburg recalls about Herb Lubalin.
From left to right: Eros magazine Autumn 1962, Vol.1, no 3 Eros magazine Spring 1962, Vol.1, no 3 Publication photo “Black and White�, editorial design by H. Lubalin
MAGAZINE His first logo was in Hebrew. He thought it was funny. Avant Garde began as the single most difficult collaboration for Lubalin and Ginzburg. Ginzburg wanted Avant Garde to be a voice for art and politics for the 60’s, whilst Lubalin couldn’t disagree more and told him it was an atrocious concept. The very name of the magazine came out in the 20’s. Although Avant Garde included erotic material (an entire issue was devoted to John Lennon’s erotic lithographs), this time the focus was more on radical politics, including the “No More War” poster competition. Mr. Ginzburg shut down the magazine when he started serving his sentence. Afterward, he and his wife tried to revive it as a tabloid newspaper, but it lasted only one issue.
From left to right: Avant Garde magazine issue #3, May 1968 Announcement of Avant Garde’s anti-war poster contest
ITC AVANT GARDE
HERB LUBALIN & TOM CARNASE
geometric sans- serif
NEW YORK CITY It’s become the most abused typeface in the world
Herb Lubalin later designed a typeface, ITC Avant Garde, for the last of these publications; this distinctive font could be described as a post-modern interpretation of art deco, and its influence can be seen in logos created in the 1990s and 2000s. The typeface Avant Garde was an outgrowth of the masthead logo for Avant Garde magazine. Avant Garde was intended for use only in the magazine, and only in upper case. Lower case characters had to be developed before the typeface was available for commercial distribution after 1970. Working alongside Lubalin was Tom Carnase who did the innovative ligatures for the typeface.
ACEFGH TKLMN TPRSTT HUTVW1
A swiss typographer, graphic designer, type designer and teacher. Born in 1936. He has worked alongside Emil Ruder in 1957 and Adrian Frutiger in 1959-65. From 1965 onwards he taught type design in Basle, Switzerland from calligraphy, logotype design, history of type and typographical theory. He was also a guest lecturer at Yale University and the Rhode Island School of Design from 1969 onwards. Working with Christian Mengelt and Erich Gschwind, the oblique font weights were created for Herbalin’s ITC Avant Garde Gothic in 1977.
Andre Gurtler
Written and published by Raisa Ceaus Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne UK NE1 2SW Two copies first published 2013 Typeset in United Kingdom by Raisa Ceaus, Northumbria University Printed in United Kingdom by Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne ISBN 0 9590880 0 8 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. ITC Avant Garde & Goudy were the fonts used for this publication