Drawing on Pop Culture

Renowned artist Gerard Huerta has applied the art of hand lettering across a diverse range of commercial industries over the past 50 years. From corporate logos and magazine mastheads to Swiss Army watch dials, movie titles, advertising, and record album covers, Huerta’s distinctive style has shaped visual culture.

Join us as we explore his creative process, from initial sketches to final inkings and color artwork. You’ll also gain insight into the evolution to digital tools and how this technological shift has transformed his approach to lettering and design.

Letterform Lectures are a public aspect of the Type West postgraduate program. The series is co-presented by the San Francisco Public Library, where events are free and open to all.

is a designer of letter forms. Born and raised in southern California he graduated from Art Center College of Design and began his career at CBS Records in New York creating artwork and iconic logos for Boston, Blue Oyster Cult, and later Foreigner, ACDC and many others.

He left CBS to expand his work beyond the recording and movie industry to design logos for HBO, CBS Records Masterworks, Spelling Entertainment, Nabisco, Calvin Klein’s Eternity, The National Guitar Museum, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, the mastheads of Time, Money, People, Architectural Digest and many others. He designed watch dials for the Original Swiss Army Watch and their complete line for fourteen years and also created original product illustrations.

Besides his graphic work, Huerta also designed the multi-necked fully-playable stringed instrument known as The Rock Ock for the National Guitar Museum, which is on tour along with his vintage guitar art. His work is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art.

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