RUDY VANDERLANS EMIGRE INC. INFLUENCE SIGNIFICANCE Brian Eno’s quip about the Velvet Underground - that only a Emigre is the only truly progressive and pluralistic graphic design “IN GRAPHIC DESIGN, THE IDEA IS THAT ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. THAT WASN’T ALWAYS THE few thousand people bought their record but every one of them magazine that is a locus for a decentralized discourse on design. It CASE. AND I THINK WITH EMIGRE, BY SHOWING WORK THAT WENT AGAINST THE GRAIN, went on to form a band - could apply as well to Emigre. Although is an international meeting place for people interested in exploring BY DISCUSSING THE ISSUES, AND BY EXPERIMENTING, WE GAVE LICENSE TO DESIGNERS - and expanding the borders of design practice and theory. The only TO EXPLORE ALTERNATIVE POSSIBILITIES, AND TO MAKE WORK THAT RESONATED WITH tion peaked at 7,000 several years ago, its reverberations are still prerequisite is an interest in new design and an open mind. Intoler- THEIR INTENDED AUDIENCES, AS OPPOSED TO MAKING WORK TO APPEASE THE LOWEST being felt around the world. The magazine that VanderLans pub- ance for different ideas is the biggest obstacle in these proscribed and COMMON DENOMINATOR. THIS IDEA OF PLURALITY IS SOMETHING THAT WE NOW TAKE lished and art directed, and the fonts Licko developed for it, have dogmatic times. With the mind-numbingly dull 1970s and 80s behind FOR GRANTED. BUT IT WASN’T SO EASY TO BREAK OUT OF THE CHOKEHOLD OF THE SWISS stimulated designers to defy, and even overthrow, entrenched us, designers are waking up and starting the next millennium. Emigre INTERNATIONAL STYLE.” rules and to set new standards. is documenting where graphic design is going. And it’s going to be RDVDL interesting. Excerpt from essay By Mr. Keedy FOUNDRY in the book Graphic Design USA 18. Emigre: Graphic Design into the Digital Realm. 1985 1988 1990 1992 1998 2003 DESIGNED BY ZUZANA LICKO. DESIGNED BY RUDY VANDERLANS AND ZUZANA DESIGNED BY BARRY DECK DESIGNED BY SIBYLLE HAGMANN DESIGNED BY JONATHAN BARNBROOK DESIGNED BY ZUZANA LICKO Created on the newly introduced Macin- LICKO “My interest in type that is not perfect; This font embraces all of the signage and Conveys a modular, geometric style, remi- tosh computer with a crude public domain design across weights and variants while still lettering that Jonathan claims to have ob- niscent of the early computer technology software language of an imperfect world, inhabited allowing for a wide range of variation in form served in the streets, cathedrals, and public by imperfect beings.” BD and counter-form across the family. buildings of his London neighborhood. made possible by a high-resolution grid. EMIGRE MAGAZINE ABOUT #7 EVOLUTION EDITOR/ART DIRECTOR/GRAPHIC DESIGN: RUDY VANDERLANS YEAR: 1987 #33 DOUBLE SPREAD CITY / COUNTRY: BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA A distinctive element of the FOUNDED IN: 1984 magazine is the use of typefaces YEAR: 1995 DIMENSIONS: VARIABLE that were created by Emigre; PAGES: VARIABLE This successfully contributed to of a smaller, revised format. The establishing their identity as a title is tongue in cheek play on Despite the use of images and photographs typographic magazine. words expressing the layout on many of the Emigre covers, there use change. was not considered essential. Instead focus on the treatment of typographic elements Emigre #23 Emigre #26 Emigre #70 took center stage. Emigre #19 Rudy maintained the philosophy of starting CONTENTCONTENT AND LAYOUT from the ground up for each publication. 17” 11” Since Emigre was built from the “EMIGRE IS WRITTEN FOR, BY, AND ABOUT GRAPHIC DESIGNERS, LIKE A MIRROR THAT PRESENTS This resulted in paper type, size and con- ground up for every issue, it DESIGNERS IN THEIR OWN WORDS, “WARTS AND ALL.” UNLIKE MOST DESIGN MAGAZINES WITH tent as continuously changing variables. utilized a variety of layouts and featured a host of guest designers SLICK PRODUCTION VALUES THAT FRAME DESIGNERS IN GLAMOROUS AND UNCRITICAL FASHION, and opinionated articles, all of EMIGRE HAS NEVER HAD THE LUXURY OF BEAUTIFULLY PRINTED, FULL-COLOR REPRODUCTIONS Originally printed in a large format made AND PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AND EDITORS. WHAT THE MAGAZINE LACKS IN REFINEMENT, IT sure that Emigre stood out from other publications that were being MAKES UP FOR IN BEING RELEVANT. THIS IS DUE TO RUDY VANDERLANS’S GENUINE PASSION FOR graphic magazines, as it required special printed at the time. NEW AND INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN DESIGN.” display requirements. 11” 8.5” MR. KEEDY 25 YEARS EMIGRE / RUDY VANDERLANS / CRITICISM REBUTTAL “EMIGRE IS THE WORST THING THAT EVER HAP- Emigre addressed a need for change in PENED TO THIS COUNTRY. IT’S UNBELIEVABLE THE DAMAGE THEY HAVE DONE. A TOTAL DISASTER. supported experimentation with new [LAUGHTER] YOU LAUGH, BUT YOU SHOULD CRY.” technologies that Swiss International Style didn’t anticipate. By breaking the mold, MASSIMO VIGNELLI Emigre created a new genre that was more congruous with the digital desktop era. COVERS years OPINION SOURCES Emigre is touted as the most progres- Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant-Garde sive of the digitally composed magazines. Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century By Steven Heller to graphic design in the digital age. It evolved along with the digital transfer- EMIGRE ence of design and showcased the “lead- Typomag ing proponents and exponents of anti By Laura Mesuguer modernist typography as well as student RUDY VANDERLANS designers who challenged the canonical Graphic Design vs. style, globalism, rules of modernism by bursting pages criticism, science, authenticity and into illegible, abstract fragments.” (Merz Rudy Vanderlans // and Emigre Magazine // played humanism No. 67 Various Authors a prominent role in challenging conventional design principles in the dawn of // desktop pub- COLOPHON lishing and helped to elevate typography and // Created by Stephanie Stobart CONDUIT ITC Typography COMM 2666 MERCURY ROMAN . Instructor: Ben Kunz 25 YEARS EMIGRE / RUDY VANDERLANS / .