This project, completed over six weeks, involved creating three pieces to pay tribute to a distinguished graphic designer. At the start of the course, I was assigned Herb F. Lubalin, an American graphic designer known for his illustrative typography and post-modern style. Lubalin’s career included work and art direction for magazines like Avante Garde and in advertising, typeface design, logo design, and more. The deliverables for this project included a logo, a postage stamp, and a postcard based on research and mood boards of Lubalin’s abundance of work.
Mood board of Herb Lubalin's work for project inspiration
The Logo
The main inspiration for the logo was Lubalin’s typographic style of creating intertwining letters combined with a
mid-century color palette. The slanted A is also a direct homage to the nameplate of Avante Garde, one of the many magazines designed by Lubalin.
The Postage Stamp
The postage stamp takes inspiration from the various magazine spreads Lubalin art directed, which often blended illustrations or photography with Lubalin’s unique typographic brand. I originally had a different design idea, stacking the 51¢ price over the year, but it was difficult to read, so I pivoted to mixing large and small text as Lubalin did in his “No More War!” poster.
The Postcard
The postcard is a mixture of many of Lubalin’s iconic works. The design combines Lubalin’s bold lettering with photography, similar to his “Come Home to Jazz” magazine cover. The photograph is taken directly from one of the Avante Garde publications featuring Marilyn Monroe, while the crimson flourish is reminiscent of the font Lubalin often used for his signature.
Final mockups of the postcard. The back features a simplified version of the logo I created and the prevailing dark red and cream color palette used throughout all three projects.
