case study 01: lubalin 100

I first found out about this website in my freshman year, doing Herb Lubablin. It was the coolest thing ever. And this is a quick case study of it.

Lubalin 100 is a website created by the Herb Lubalin Study Center and Readymag. The website is in a format of a 100-day calendar celebrating Herb Lubalin’s centenary (1918–2018). Herb Lubalin is an American graphic designer, best known for his collaborations with Ralph Ginzburg on the magazines Eros, Fact and Avant Garde.

the website

• Celebration of Herb Lubalin’s 100th Birthday: the launch of lubalin100.com to mark the occasion, with content to be posted daily for 100 consecutive days.
• Curated by Alexander Tochilovsky: Tochilovsky, curator of the Herb Lubalin Study Centre, spearheads the project.
• Advent Calendar Concept: project structured akin to an advent calendar, aims to unveil a richer story about Lubalin’s life and work.
• Uncovering Overlooked Material: focus on highlighting lesser-known items from Lubalin’s archive, shining a spotlight on crucial collaborators often overlooked.
• Innovative Content Inclusion: highlights from magazines like Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde, showcasing rejected pieces, personal anecdotes, quotes, and more.
• Personal Highlight – Lubalin’s Animations for PBS:
  • Alexander highlights Lubalin’s animations for PBS in the early 1970s.
  • Original footage lost, reanimated for lubalin100.com.
  • A glimpse into Lubalin’s typography animation techniques.
• Utilizing Web Medium:
  • Aim to make Lubalin’s work accessible to a broader audience via the web.
  • Democratizing Lubalin’s designs by leveraging digital platforms.
  • Speculative exploration of how Lubalin would utilize today’s digital platforms.
• Interviews with contemporary designers to provide insights.

bonus: typography by Oh No Type

Under the creative direction of Alexander Tochilovsky, Oh No Type designed the logo for the Lubalin Center’s “Lubalin 100” project, aiming to share daily content for 100 days honoring Herb’s legacy and collaborators: “Aping Herb’s known favorites would have been fairly low hanging fruit so we tried to introduce something that was loosely inspired by the work of his illustrious team of letterers like Tony DiSpigna, Tom Carnase, Alan Peckolick, and John Pistilli.”