He graduated in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1932, and wanted to become a cartoonist, but his reputation was made as a magazine art director. During the postwar years (1953–68), Hurlburt worked for NBC and Look magazine, where his page designs were awarded with a dozen gold medals in the Advertising and Editorial Art and Art Directors Club annual exhibitions. He was design director for Cowles Communications (1968–72). In 1965, he was named Art Director of the Year and he received the gold medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (1973). He was elected president of the AIGA from 1968–70. Hurlburt was a newspaper addict. He wrote many books, among them Publication Design (revised 1976), Layout: The Design of the Printed Page (1977) and The Grid: A modular system for the design and production of newspapers, magazines and books (1978). He was coordinator at Parsons and lectured at the London College of Printing.