ZuZana Licko RuDY VanderLans

The most successful experimental typeface designs are often those that address the needs of a new,

yet uncharted, technology.

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” Designers mediate just about any message that the public consumes.

And it’s not exactly a benign action.

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image source: printmag.com

1984 was the year of a typographic revolution. However, typographic revolutions rarely make headlines, but that does not mean that they do not create waves. While for the rest of the typography world it was business as usual, somewhere in the suburbs of California a Dutch émigré launched an obscure magazine for fellow designer exiles called just that - Émigré.1 But what really set this revolu-tion in motion is that this designer happened to acquire a revolutionary new tool for setting the design of this magazine – a Mac. Oh, and he also happened to be married to a fellow designer and émigré, the Czech born Zuzana Licko. Together, they unknowingly started a design revolution.

ZuZana Licko RuDY VanderLans

THE QuIET REBELS By Lana Voynova

Rudy VanDerlans acquired his initial education at the prestigious Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.2 He called this education “Bauhausian”3 due to heavy reliance on studio design and so-cial awareness but with little theory. In America, his education continued at UC Berkley where he majored in photography. Upon graduation he launched Émigré with other fellow designers as a place for exiles like himself to have a voice and connect. Berkeley was also where the fateful meet-ing with Zuzana occurred.

Zuzana also studied photography, but it is impor-tant to note that she also studied architecture and computer programming prior to switching to the less constrained Communications Design. Back in the Czech Republic she also had a chance to play with computers and fonts a bit (no pun intended) as her father was a biomathematician who once asked her to set the Greek alphabet for his personal use.4 The next time Zuzana would set font personal use would be for her husband Rudy’s brainchild - Émigré Magazine.

ÉMIGRÉ & BITMaP FOnTSOriginally intended as a small publication for foreign-born designers, Émigré grew to become a typographic cult hit. This is all thanks to Zuzana’s fearless embrace of setting fonts on the Mac and Rudy’s organic and creative layouts. He originally coined Émigré as the “magazine that ignores boundaries.”5 But it did more than that; it ignored rules and conventions, especially when it came to typesetting. This approach faced some harsh criti-cism along the way, but that is to be expected with any revolution.

Zuzana’s organized and intelligent approach to font designs was actually empowered and not hindered by the Mac and low resolution outputs1 ofthe time. She thrived at manipulating pixels with bit type into usable and interesting fonts and from this arose the fonts Base and Emperor. Zuzana changed the font name by adding a number unto the back representing the amount of ppem5 (points per em), hence the names Base 9 and Emperor 12.

Naturally, when designing something so rough and fiercely original, it will not readily be accepted. Their layouts and fonts were called crude and one designer even called them “garbage”5 but that is probably mostly due to people ceasing to purchase his outdated designs.

Meanwhile, Rudy was experimenting with layouts and changing the look of the magazine, even its logo with every issue. As the popularity of Émigré started growing, fans started to consume it not just for the content but they also started to notice the fonts and began to request them for purchase. Only 3 years after its publication, Rudy and Zuzana became designers and business partners as well with the launch of their foundry Émigré Fonts.4 The timing could not have been better for Émigré as its content became more verbose and the technology for font designs rapidly improve.

1984 first issue

1991 “starting from zero”

1994 “designers republic”

2001 “honey barbara”

2005 last issue

SOuRCES

1. Drucker, Joanna & McVarish, Emily - Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide

2. De Jong, Cees W; et all - Creative Type: A Sourcebook of Classical and Contemporary Letterforms

3. Koga, Toshiaki. “IDEA Magazine Interview” emigre.com

4. Dooley, Michael. “Critical Conditions: Zuzana Licko, Rudy VanderLans, & the Emigré Spirit” AIGA.org

5. Rubinstein, Rhonda “EYE Magazine Interview” Emigre.com 6. Coles, Stephen “An Interview with Zuzana Licko” Fontfeed.com

FILOSOFIa & OTHER FOnTS Faced with a demand for interesting fonts and the ability to create more dynamic ones for longer con-tent, Zuzana again took to her Mac. In the 1990’s she designed some of her most famous typefaces which include Mrs Eaves, Filosophia and the cooky Hypnopaedia which takes 4 letters and turns them into 1 graphic by rotating them.6 Having a com-munications design background, Licko was famil-iar with tried and true fonts such as Baskerville and Bodoni and so, she based her newest fonts on these famous classics only to have her fonts become famous themselves.

A nod to history, but with a modern if not roman-tic twist as the name Mrs Eaves name comes from Baskerville’s lover, who later became his wife.5 Due to the font’s sexy curves but classic style and versa-tile use, it grew to become the foundry’s bestseller. This bodes well as this article is set in Baskerville. As for Filosofia, Licko drew it from memory based on her favorite font, Bodoni and it also went on toenjoy much commercial success.2

PRaISE & THE FuTuREEmgire grew more successful too. It dropped its price with the addition of advertising and saw its circulation skyrocket. Meanwhile, the stuffy and outdated typographic groups and awards started catching up with the future of font design. They fi-nally recognized the forward thinking Émigré and its fonts and so Zuzana and Rudy went on to win every prestigious design award imaginable. This was true design redemption.5

Much like their fonts, Zuana and Rudy’s begin-nings were rough and under much scrutiny only to later have it them be acknowledged. Émigré started and set the bar for developing digital fonts. Ironically, it is digital that would lead to the publi-cation’s print demise and the migration to using an online font foundry at www.emigre.com.5

What about the ease in making digital fonts and layouts with new OpenType technologies and the exorbitant amount designers making questionable fonts and designs every day? Rudy believes that design needs to become more intelligent and better reflect the content it represents.3 As for fonts, to this Licko makes a good point - this is great, however one must understand where fonts came from and how to use them properly. After all she says, one doesn’t learn math by punching numbers into a calculator!5 And she is right, as her and Rudy are living proof of revolutionary design success.

Émigré still enjoys much success and accolades as Rudy and Zuzana never stopped designing fonts and learning new technologies. They echo the sen-timents of many fellow designers who still do not have proper recognition for contributing fonts to advertising and designs and they are also looking to protect these font designers with copyright laws.5 They have expanded beyond type by getting back to their creative roots with photography and even pottery. However, they still design new fonts and actively pursue learning new font design technolo-gies even after the end of Émigré.