Schnapp was born in the small town of Sassow, then in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Schnapp family lived at 86 Ludlow Street in lower Manhattan, and Ira and his siblings probably attended New York's Public School #188.

[2] Little evidence has surfaced about Schnapp's early work during and after leaving school, but late in his life he often talked about helping to design the very large carved inscriptions on the façade of the James A. Farley Post Office Building on Manhattan's Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, constructed from 1908 to 1912.

His role was making huge full-size tissue layouts of the letters, which are in the style of Rome's Trajan's Column, as drawn on the architectural plans by the architects.

He may have done similar work for inscriptions on other monumental buildings of the time like the New York Public Library Main Branch at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

Nothing is known of his output during the 1920s, but by the 1930s, Schnapp was doing show card lettering for movie theater lobbies, including huge displays for the premiere of King Kong at Radio City Music Hall in 1933, and many others.

By the early 1930s, Schnapp and his extended family and siblings had relocated to Manhattan's Upper West Side around 110th Street.

Based on Shuster's ideas, Schnapp gave the logo professional polish and correct perspective, greatly improving it.

[4] The Superman logo redesign began a relationship with DC Comics that lasted the rest of Schnapp's working life.

[12] Around 1949, Schnapp took a staff position at National (DC) Comics, working in their production department at 480 Lexington Avenue every day.

By doing so, Schnapp set the style for the entire company, producing a huge amount of work that caught the imagination of readers and kept them coming back for more.

Dozens of logos for books like The Flash, Justice League of America, Green Lantern, The Atom, Hawkman, and Metal Men brought Schnapp's classic and art deco styles to the newsstand.

His cover lettering and house ads were full of excitement, encouraging children to buy the comics.

Despite the great volume of work he was doing, Schnapp did not receive credit, except on two issues of The Inferior Five in 1967, near the end of his career.

These ads ran across the entire line, with text by editors like Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz.

Despite his brilliance as a logo and title designer, in the words of comics historian Kirk Kimball, "Schnapp's word-balloon lettering was ... surprisingly pedestrian.

Lichtenstein slightly reworked the art and dialogue, and re-lettered Schnapp's original word balloon.

In a major shake-up, Infantino transitioned to Gaspar Saladino as the new main logo and house-ad designer and cover letterer for the entire line of comics.

One of their sons was Jay (Schnapp) Emmett, who began as a National employee and worked his way up to President of Warner Communications.

[13]Kirk Kimball of Dial B for Blog: Readers — designers — look upon the work of Ira Schnapp, and despair!

It simply can't be done, because Schnapp's designs are inextricably woven into the very fabric of American pop culture.