U&lc Volume 5

U&lc began its fifth year of publication in 1978 and was fully established as a unique source of great typographic design, harbinger of new typefaces, cornucopia of information about typography and its practitioners – and the occasional prediction about the future of our craft. Graphic designers would eagerly await the next issue and devour the contents when it arrived.

At the time, I was working for a large company, and the issues were delivered in bulk. As soon as one person discovered the box of issues in the mailroom, all work stopped as we rushed to gather a copy. (The word spread as fast as any email today.)

In 1960 Herb Lubalin created a series inserts about U.S. culture for the German design magazine, Der Druckspiegel. Then, as now, music was an important part of designer's lives. Radios (sans ear buds) and even phonographs were important fixtures most design studios. In U&lc, Volume Five, No. 1, Lubalin recreated this award-winning design, "Come Home to Jazz," using ITC typefaces. The designs, although over 30 years old, are still electrifying.

Volume Five, No. 2 predicted a new job title and career opportunity for graphic designers. The opportunity came to fruition – not so much the job title.

The ITC Zapf Dingbats® suite of characters was one of the many designs announced in the pages of Volume Five. Today, ITC Zapf Dingbats is the staple for bullets, boxes, stars, pointing hands, and the like. In 1978, it was a groundbreaking accomplishment – and the first time that a large suite of these characters were drawn with consistent design traits and organized in a logical way.

Readers were also treated to a 3000-year "Brief History of Typography" – in four pages.

Volume Five, No. 4 features one of my all-time favorite articles. Titled "My Favorite 5, 6, 7, and 9 Letter Words." Herb Lubalin, who was almost as concerned with the look of a word as he was with its meaning, picked his favorites (graphically speaking) from the English language, listed them and transformed many into wonderful graphic images set in the ITC Benguiat® typeface.

Click the PDFs below to enjoy the above articles and features – plus lots more.

Low Resolution:

Volume 5–1 (Low Res).pdf (15.4 MB)

Volume 5–2 (Low Res).pdf (12.1 MB)

Volume 5–3 (Low Res).pdf (13.5 MB)

Volume 5–4 (Low Res).pdf (12.8 MB)

High Resolution:

Volume 5–1.pdf (78.9 MB)

Volume 5–2.pdf (63.0 MB)

Volume 5–3.pdf (65.2 MB)

Volume 5–4.pdf (62.5 MB)

Allan Haley is Director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging. Here he is responsible for strategic planning and creative implementation of just about everything related to typeface designs.