I recently attended the Herb Lubalin (pronounced Lube-ah-lin; 1918-1981) exhibit at the Cooper Union School of Art & Architecture. He was a prominent American graphic designer of the 20th century and, in my opinion, was the rock star of graphic designers! This show reminded me of how beautiful and powerful type can be. I’m amazed how Lubalin would tweak every single letter until he got the perfect positive and negative space between each letterform. He would push ascenders and descenders (top and bottom parts of a letter) together to create concrete poetry. I've always known that a simple arrangement of type can change the way you visually communicate. I had forgotten that letterform can be pushed as an art form even in commercial settings.

I went with a graphic designer friend who is as passionate about typography as I am. While looking at his body of work, my friend turned to me and mentioned that as a student she experimented with Lubalin’s signature typeface known as Avant Garde. I told her I had NEVER experimented with the font, and she looked at me as though I’d committed the worst crime a typographer could ever make. Although the font is beautiful in the right hands, in my observation, it is probably the most misused font ever made. The font was created by Lubablin specifically for his work in Avant Garde Magazine. Lubalin was so dedicated to the beauty of his typography that he would ask editors to change the titles of their stories in order to realize the most elegant logograms. Imagine saying to an editor, “excuse me Mr. Editor, will you change the title of this article so that the letter A would never have a round letter next to it?” Unbelievable right? Unbelievable but true! I was thrilled and surprised to be inspired by this exhibit.

Louisa