Carreon - Mandatory blog post - Herb Lubalin

Herb Lubalin: Typographer (Art Director and Graphic Designer) 

Colorblind, left handed, poor academic grades, and quiet man, it was no wonder many people, including his father-in-law and several teachers, thought he wouldn’t be a big shot in life. Little did these people know that Herb Lubalin would become one of America’s most highly regarded and respected graphic designers. Born 1918 -1981, Lubalin’s most significant work and contribution to the graphic design canon took place throughout the 1970s, when the publishing of magazine Avant Garde and the creation of the typeface ITC Avant Garde were developed. Needless to say, the 70s were not the only years of Lubalin’s great work.

Art school was chance for Lubalin since he had no plans of picking up art as a career, and given his family’s lowly financial level, his parents pushed for medical or law fields. Herb’s poor grades were not accepted at the free College of the City of New York; and so he applied to Cooper Union where he was accepted as dead last 64/64 applicants. Throughout his art schooling, his grades did a complete 180° turn from being ranked amongst the worst students during his first two years, to practically the best in his last two years. The turning point? – His calligraphy class – to no surprise, knowing his artistic style today.

Despite the fact that calligraphic elements use an angled pen that requires using the right hand, and Lubalin’s teacher persisted that Herb learn how to us his right hand, Lubalin did his work with his left hand, and still so, received the highest mark in the class. Although Lubalin never told his teacher he actually used his left hand, receiving the highest mark gave him the confidence he needed to turn his artistic talent in the correct direction.

Lubalin’s work is most recognized for script type and highly expressive and meaning-filled design compositions despite his quietness in person, he was quite expressive in his design work. Lubalin’s most favorite way to design an ad was always to start off by the headline. In this way, he would create the idea, and later hang the design off of it. Figure 1 below shows an example of Lubalin’s expressive designs and how he applied meaning to design. “He was a non-verbal designer fascinated by the look and sound of words, and he expanded on their message with typographic impact” (Snyder and Peckolick 8).

Figure1: Anti-­‐war poster designed by Lubalin for an exhibition at 
the American Institute of Graphic Arts (Snyder and Peckolick 44).

Herb’s left- handedness, colorblindness, and silence were no handicap for his design work that stretched the boundaries of design. “Herb Lubalin's unique contribution to our times goes well beyond design in much the same way that his typographic innovations go beyond the twenty-six letters, ten numerals and the handful of punctuation marks that comprise our visual, literal vocabulary. Lubalin's imagination, sight and insight have erased boundaries and pushed back frontiers” (Brown). Herb’s left- handedness, colorblindness, and silence were no handicap for his design work that stretched the boundaries of design.

Works Cited:

Snyder, Gertrude and Alan Peckolick. Herb Lubalin Art Director, Graphic Designer, and Typographer. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1985.

Brown, David R. Herb Lubalin . 1981. 13 March 2013 <http://www.aiga.org/medalistherblubalin/>.