Herb Lubalin was two years old when AIGA awarded its first medal to the individual who, in the judgment of its board of directors and its membership, had distinguished himself in, and contributed significantly to, the field of graphic arts. He said he’d offer me a job—if he had an opening. Herb Lubalin died 31 years ago at the young-ish age of 63. Project by the Herb Lubalin Study Center and Readymag. Someone who loved lettering, typography, and the processes and craft of graphic communication. Nothing was working. Had he lived, it's interesting to speculate whether he would have been able to adapt to the new design environment? During that time he became one of the pioneers of expressive typography (‘word pictures’, to use his phrase): his print ads for leading pharmaceutical companies radicalised advertising at a time when press ads often featured people in evening dress standing next to Cadillacs. For general questions about PRINT or PRINT Holdings, LLC contact. Herb wrote back, “My partner Ernie Smith is retiring. Logolog is a logo design blog focusing on wit and lateral thinking in logo design.The logos featured here made me smile and wish I had thought of them first! I respectfully disagree with Shaughnessy’s point #5, that “anyone given a Lubalin tissue could not claim to be the piece’s designer.” Although the tissues indicated exactly what Herb envisioned, he was generous with creative freedom. I worked as Herb’s assistant before Louise Fili joined the office, interpreting and overseeing production of some of those famous “tissues”—in my case, for the first two issues of U&lc and various annual report and identity projects. He emerged as a sophisticated and surprisingly progressive designer. It was because he wanted to give women jobs. Some things endure. I told Herb about how I’d been keeping track of all terrible ways the ligatures in his then-new typeface, Avant Garde Gothic, were being misused. Herb often said that when he retired he would devote his life to painting. In the case of Lubalin, the matter is further complicated by the fact that, as has already been noted, he only ever produced ‘tissues’ – sketches done with a cheap Pentel pen and then passed over to highly skilled lettering artists such as John Pistilli, Tom Carnase and Tony DiSpigna. Reflecting on the obscenity conviction of his friend and client, the magazine publisher Ralph Ginzberg, Herb said, “I should have gone to jail too”. Herb’s wife told me that, after Ginzburg’s jailing, he'd told her that he should have gone to jail too. Of course, I recognised that he was a significant American typographer and designer, responsible for some high quality typographic logos and a handful of era-defining typefaces. This is something else that Herb’s wife Rhoda told me. Warm thanks to all our backers! Well, there is the glamorous, award-winning work you see on the pages of Shaughnessy’s book. That individual was Norman T. Munder. I could have figured out how to make a bigger contribution there. Their names frequently appeared on studio promotional literature, and in the case of Carnase, DiSpigna, Ernie Smith and Alan Peckolick, he also made them partners. New York was exciting but lonely. And the whole office went for long weekends on Lake George in the Adirondacks, where former partner Ernie Smith ran Port Jerry, a resort with cabins and canoes. Lubalin worked at S&H from 1949 to 1964. Above: Typographic self-portrait by Lubalin for an exhibit at the American Institute of Graphic Arts. And that was nowhere more apparent than in his hiring practices. The Herb Lubalin Study Center For those too young to remember Lubalin’s work, there is a place to see it first-hand. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate Swiss rigour, or that he knew nothing about it, it was just that he thought it was unsuited to the mainstream American imagination. T: +44 (0)20 7793 9555, 9. 1. What does this tell us? Knowing I missed L.A., he invited me to spend a weekend afternoon or two at the pool with his family on Long Island. He wanted to give them a break and nurture their talent. With Herb Lubalin as editor and designer, ITC began publishing “U&lc” in 1973 to market the company’s typefaces. 5. In 1985, the Cooper Union founded the Herb Lubalin Study Center (HLSC). The Lubalin family was there, too—sons Peter and Robbie—and many of Herb’s old colleagues and friends, including panelists Bernie Zlotnick, who worked with Lubalin in the ’60s at Sudler & Hennessey; Fay Barrows, Lubalin’s assistant at S&H; ad man George Lois; author and educator Steve Heller; and designer Louise Fili, who in the mid ’70s launched her career at Lubalin, Smith, Carnase. Lublin sketched a few ideas in his usual manner – interlocking letters and sharp angles. 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