AVANT GARDE STYLE FONTS TRIAL

I explained that the logos he had offered us for this project, so far, could have been on any magazine but that Avant Garde (adventuring into unknown territory) by its very name was something nobody had seen before.

I used my hand to describe an upward diagonal of the plane climbing skyward. “I asked him to picture a very modern, clean European airport (or the TWA terminal), with signs in stark black and white,” Shoshana recalls, “Then I told him to imagine a jet taking off the runway into the future. And though he normally produced designs for me instantaneously, no matter how complex or challenging the job, two weeks elapsed and he still didn't have a clue.”Įxasperated, Ginzburg had Shoshana visit Lubalin at his studio to explain the concept of the magazine to him one last time. The concept of Avant Garde was the lone exception. “Herb and I had always been on the same creative frequency. “ kept associating the magazine with the nihilistic avant-garde school of art of the early 20th Century,” Ginzburg adds, “but this magazine had nothing to do with that.” Instead it was for intellectuals who might also possess a sense of humor. To help Lubalin develop the design scheme Ginzburg sent him a lengthy editorial outline and recalls, “He came up with two beautiful logos, but they were all wrong for the publication I had in mind.” One was based on the typeface used on the old original Coca-Cola bottles, another on Hebrew letters.

AVANT GARDE STYLE FONTS TRIAL

After the trial Ginzburg wanted to start a new magazine but was prevented by his lawyers who feared it might turn out to be a “hellraiser.” Ginzburg was out on bail for the EROS conviction awaiting appeal, but the process took so long-about ten years-that the magazine ultimately went into production in mid-1967. “pandering”) through the United States mails. * The opening page of the first issue of Avant Garde bore this dedication set in Avant Garde Gothic: As most of the world's ills are traceable to old imperatives, old superstitions, and old fools, this magazine exuberantly dedicated to the future.īefore launching the magazine Ginzburg was the publisher and editor - with Herb Lubalin the art director and designer-of the erotic hardcover magazine, EROS, which folded after four issues when Ginzburg was arrested and convicted on the charge of sending prurient materials (e.g. In other words, it was avant garde – thus the magazine’s title, coined by Ginzburg’s wife and collaborator, Shoshana, was Avant Garde.* It was the logo for a magazine that its editor and publisher Ralph Ginzburg explains was “a thoughtful, joyous magazine on art and politics” aimed at people “ahead of their time.” The goal of the magazine, however, was not merely to reflect the cultural zeitgeist but take a lead role in purveying raucous sixties culture. However, the revenue stream made from font sales gives this a disingenuous ring.Īvant Garde was not originally designed as a commercial typeface.

In fact, having seen so many abominable applications by addicts like myself, I once heard Lubalin curse the day that Avant Garde was released to the public. Nobody, not even the face’s creator Herb Lubalin, could stop me. Since I had the fonts on my Phototypositor I got kicks making the most flagrantly absurd ligature combinations imaginable. Although I haven’t touched the stuff in almost thirty years, when the face was in its prime, I was hopelessly addicted. I know because I am a recovering Avant Garde abuser. The reason is a surfeit of angular ligatures that offer too many cheap tricks. But few typefaces have been victimized more than the late-sixties/early-seventies gothic Avant Garde – and the felonies persist. Crimes against typography are committed everyday.

Avant garde style fonts