Herbert F. Lubalin: An Influential Graphic Designer

      Born on February 28, 1977 in Los Angeles, CA, African American Painter Kehnide Wiley grew up in an environment that was driven by some of the defining elements of “hip-hop, the violence, antisocial behavior, and streets on firestreets on fire” (Whiley Studio). . These environmental factors never stopped Wiley from pushing his career. Both him and his twin brother were constantly motivated by their mother to pursue their dreams. On weekends, she would send them to art classes at a conservatory and after school she would have them on lockdown in order to keep them away from the influences in the environment they lived.

The influential typeface Helvetica, a neo-grotesque1 sans serif type design, came into being in the early 1950s - after the Second World War. The expectation of the designers, Edouard Hoffman and Max Miedinger was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form and could be used on a wide variety of signage to remake a new identity apart from the past (). Originally named as Neue Haas Grotesk, the typeface was changed to Helvetica in 1960. Today, Helvetica, as an aesthetics constant, although not perfect, mastered the quantum leap in 1957 from metal type to the digital age of word processing. Axel Langer, a curator of Islamic Near Eastern Art, mentioned it as ‘an impersonal typeface for today and tomorrow ().’

Throughout time, there have been countless artists, designers and typographers that had the opportunity to make a bold statement, invent the next best thing or to engrave their name in the design industry for all eternity. Although ordinary people don’t realize a good design when they see it, they know it has attracted them somehow and they feel the need to ask and wonder how it came to be. Without question, Eric Gill has note ably revolutionized the type world. Without him there would be no benchmark for humanist typefaces; without Gill, there would be no Gill Sans, the font that will consistently be seen as a crisp, clean and readable font; as all typefaces should be. Despite for his one notorious face, he has created 11 typefaces, wrote

A personal favorite of mine and a film that made me want to pursue my career in Graphic Design. Following on from Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s second film looks at the world of design and the creative concepts behind objects used every day such as toothbrushes to tech gadgets.

Les Mason was born in California, USA in 1924. He studied painting and interior design at the Choinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California. Prior to moving to Melbourne in 1961, he worked in commercial art and advertising. At the time printing companies and agencies made decisions on how packaging, advertising and branding was designed. He changed this and revolutionized the industry by establishing graphic design as a professional practice.

David Carson had such an impact on the graphic design scene throughout the 90’s that he was nicknamed “The Godfather of Grunge.” Having a highly specialized style of contemporary work he is considered to be one of the greats of this field. His career first started to take flight with a magazine called “Ray Gun” this is where he started getting recognition for his distinct layouts and innovative typographies. September 8, 1954, You could say a legend was born, Carson excelled at many things over his life in 1989 he was considered to be in the top 10 surfers in the world. Which ironically enough led him to graphic design.

Graphic design set its first roots in Germany in 1455 with the introduction of the Blackletter typeface and Johannes Gutenberg’s Gutenberg Bible. Coined as the godfather of printing Gutenberg helped to spread Blackletter in popularity. With the advent of Martin Luther’s New Testament, however, a schism was created between those that chose to use

Paul Rand, a top influence in the field of design brought America into the modern era of design. This study will give a background to Rands life and how his upbringing impacted his future endeavors. It will then cover his primary works and discuss work that became a defining part of his career and the industry. Following that, it will discuss how Rands work in advertising and Corporate Identity set the groundwork for today design thinking. Finally, the thesis will examine modern designers that sought out Rand as a source of inspiration. This thesis will look at why Paul Rand is said to be one of the most influential graphic designers in history, and why his principles translate into good design that resonates for generations to follow.

Yulia Brodskaya, a highly regarded paper artist and illustrator, was born in 1983 and is from Moscow, Russia. After she arrived at the United Kingdom, she started working as a freelace graphic designer, where she is currently based out of. Yulia moved there where she continued her education in art. She learned that she had a “second love” for Typography after paper, where she worked as a graphic designer and illustrator. She attended University of Hertfordshire, where she studied Graphic Communication. She left computer programming because of how much she discovered she loved paper art; not long after this, she started drawing with paper instead of drawing on the paper. She always uses two materials that consists of paper and glue. Her original

Considered one of the most influential typographers in history, John Baskerville made a significant mark on the world of print and type founding. Although considered a failure at printing during his lifetime he produced

Born in 1865 in Bloomington Illinois, Frederick William Goudy would not find his passion for typeface design until later on in his life. Goudy first became a marketing designer and later the art director for Lanston Monotype where he held this position for more than twenty-five years. Later on he also became a lecturer at Syracuse University's School of Journalism in New York. In his older years, he started transitioning into being a typeface designer and he designed his first typeface in 1896; it was entitled Camelot. (Wikipedia, 2018). Throughout the years he continued designing until he was commissioned to produce a typeface for Robert Nelson, the president at the time for the type foundry, American Type Founders Company (Goudy, 1946, p.92).

The best way to explain the love and hate feelings towards one of the most recognizable typefaces of all time is best done by a joke. “So, Comic Sands walks into a bar…and the bartender says, ‘we don’t serve your type’” (Garfield, 21). Comic Sans was created by Vincent Connare, and was released by Microsoft in 1995. Ever since its existence people have questioned its purpose and aesthetic. The typeface is notoriously known for being too informal and lacks care in designing it. An example of a design flaw from a graphic designer’s perspective, is the carelessness and inconsistency with its kerning. Kerning is the adjustable space between letters or characters. This paper will take a closer look at the history of Comic Sans from the launch to twenty years later.

Herb Lubalin was an American graphic designer, born in New York, March 17, 1918 and died March 17, 1981. He entered Cooper Union at age of 17 and he became entranced in the possibilities presented by typography (history graphic design). He practiced his considerable skills and attracted an array of designs when he worked with Sudler and Hennessey for 18 years. Lubalin had his own private studio in 1964 and this gave him the freedom to do a range of projects. Also, he created his first typeface called Pistilli Roman in1964. He worked for magazines published by Ralph Ginzburg: Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde (history graphic design). The International Typeface Corporation was a type manufacturer founded in New York in 1970 by Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin, and Edward Rondthaler.

Milton Glaser: Taking inspiration from the history of art and graphic design, Glaser created a new style of graphic communication that combines visual and intellectual concepts.

He also worked at freelance in London between 1972 up to 1979. He is a member of the German Design Council board and past president of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) and the International Institute for Information Design (IIID). He is also a professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen and he received an honorary doctorate from Pasadena Center of Art. As a typographer, he has made many accomplishments in his life such as being the founder of the following typefaces: FF Meta, ITC Officina, Lo-Type, FF Unit, Berliner Grotesk, FF Info and many more.