Herb Lubalin was one of America’s greatest advertising art directors. He was born in New York and was also a graphic and typeface designer. Lubalin was one of the founders of the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) and was well known for creating the typeface Avant Garde. The ITC created new and modernized typefaces, they also provided copyright and royalties to designers for the first time.
Lubalin spent the last ten years of his life working on a variety of projects, playing a pivotal role in the ITC and its typographic journal. Lubalin enjoyed the freedom his magazine provided him; he was quoted as saying “Right now, I have what every designer wants and few have the good fortune to achieve. I’m my own client. Nobody tells me what to do.”
His constant search for something new and a passion for inventiveness made him one of the most successful art directors of the 20th century. He had offices internationally in Paris and London and partnered with many talented individuals over the years including Aaron Burns, Tom Carnase, Ernie Smith and Ralph Ginzburg.
