How does a “resurgence of interest” get underway? Take Herb Lubalin, for example. During the 1970s and ‘80s, Lubalin, who previously was part of the “mad men” decades in advertising, formed a design consultancy through which he celebrated a vernacular approach to typography. You could say that his anti-Helvetic stance eliminated many design pitfalls that might have sidetracked him in what seems to have been a single-minded path towards a more decorative approach to design.

However, “typography” is not a word Lubalin thought should be applied to his work. “What I do is not really typography, which I think of as an essentially mechanical means of putting characters down on a page. It's designing with letters,” he said in an interview in conjunction with the 1980 AIGA Medal award. “Aaron Burns called it, 'typographics,'” he continued, “and since you've got to put a name on things to make them memorable, 'typographics' is as good a name for what I do as any.”

The recipient of numerous industry awards including the 1962 Art Director of the Year from the National Society of Art Directors, Lubalin was also a publication designer of originality and distinction. Among those titles are the controversial Eros in the early 60s, the lushly illustrated Avant Garde late in the same decade, and his own publication, U & lc, which flourished from 1973 through the ‘80s.

As a publication designer, he pushed beyond the boundaries that constrained mainstream magazines—both in form and content. And because he avoided mainstream magazines, he was able to singularize—and maintain—his vision. According to the 1980 AIGA interview, “Lubalin helped push back the boundaries of the impact and perception of design—from an ill-defined, narrowly recognized craft to a powerful communication medium that could put big, important ideas smack in the public eye.”

This August will see the release of Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer, 1918–81 (Unit Editions) is the first major work on Lubalin since 1985. The book features an in-depth biographical essay by Adrian Shaughnessy, who co-edited the book with Tony Brook and Alexander Tochilovsky. But the current interest in Lubalin’s work really began in 2009, with an exhibition at Cooper Union curated by Tochilovsky, who is also the director of the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography there.

For anyone in or passing through New York City before July 20^th, an exhibition at Aperture about the great French publisher, Robert Delpire, nicely showcases the advertising and typographic design Lubalin created during his long collaboration with Delpire & Co. Aperture Gallery and Bookstore, 547 West 27^th Street, 4^th Floor, NY, NY.

Meanwhile, the Herb Lubalin Study Center continues its lecture series through the summer with Allan Haley on How Cool Designers Create Hot Typography tonight, and Erik van Bloklad, On Tools, Eyes and Ideas on July 9^th. Free and open to the public at Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square, NY, NY. Information.