This 448-page biography surveys the life and work of the American graphic designer Herb Lubalin. During his lifetime, Lubalin was widely regarded as one of the foremost designers and typographers of the 20th century, yet in recent decades he had become dismissed as outdated and superficial, lacking the recognition accorded to contemporaries such as Paul Rand. This book, written, jointly edited, co-designed and co-published by Shaughnessy, restores Lubalin’s reputation as both a master practitioner and an unexpectedly modern figure.

Shaughnessy’s researches in the Lubalin archive at The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography at the Cooper Union in New York, where he was assisted by the Center’s expert curatorial staff, enabled him to debunk the notion of Lubalin as a subject unworthy of study by today’s design students and design scholars. Detailed study of the numerous published artefacts designed by Lubalin from the 1940s onwards – many unseen since their creation – and extensive interviews with former colleagues, revealed a picture of a progressive editorial designer who pioneered image-led journalism. The research indicates that Lubalin was the leading practitioner of ‘expressive typography’, a technique he partly invented which allowed him to make ‘pictorial metaphors’ that demanded the active participation of the viewer. This made him an early proponent of human-centred design, now a topic of intellectual research focus.

The book’s publication was accompanied by a symposium at St Bride Library, London (2012), and a two-day symposium held in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, NYC (2012). The book received coverage from leading design blogs such as Eye, Print and Design Week. A lengthy review appeared in Creative Review (2012), and the book was selected for inclusion in the influential Designers & Books website as one of the ‘Notable books of 2012’.