Industry: Design

Typeface Revival for Lubalin Recast Sans

Reviving a 1970s magazine logo into a full font family

Lubalin Recast Sans is Dalton Maag's 2024 revival of Herb Lubalin's geometric sans typeface, originally conceived as a magazine logo in the 1970s. Designed by Yingtong Tan and Angel Kwong, the update introduces an extensive Weight axis and recovers the source design's distinctive ligatures and alternates. Latin coverage extends to over 800 languages.

Set in Lubalin Recast Sans

Insights

The design originates from a magazine logotype rather than a text typeface commission, shaping its unconventional alternate letterforms.
The revival reinstates discretionary ligatures and both forwards and backwards alternates for A, M, V, W, v, w, and y, documented as OpenType features.
An extensive Weight axis was added in the 2024 update.
Geometric alternates cover C, G, I, c, e, and t.