Herb Lubalin was born in New York in 1918 and graduated from Cooper Union in 1939. After designing exhibits for the New York World’s Fair and freelancing for several agencies, he joined Sudler and Hennessey in 1946, where he became vice president and creative director.
In 1964 he set up his own studio. He treated letters as images, squeezing, overlapping and joining them until the words themselves carried the idea. With publisher Ralph Ginzburg he art directed Eros, Fact and Avant Garde magazine, and the Avant Garde logo grew into the typeface ITC Avant Garde Gothic, drawn with Tom Carnase.
In 1970 he co-founded the International Typeface Corporation, and from 1973 he edited and designed its journal U&lc, which became a showcase for new type and a design landmark in its own right.
