Emigre, also known as Emigre Graphics, is a type foundry in Berkeley, California, founded by Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko[1]. It also published Emigre magazine between 1984 and 2005. Note that unlike the word émigré, Emigre is officially spelled without accents.
Emigre was founded in 1984 as an independent foundry, developing typefaces without an association with a typesetting equipment manufacturer. Since Emigre took advantage of the Macintosh computer to design digital typefaces, they did not require the manufacturing infrastructure of a traditional type foundry. Licko began designing fonts that, rather than trying to imitate letterpress technology, tried to take advantage of the idiosyncrasies of bitmap design and dot matrix printing[2], and later, vector-based design[3].
Through a good part of the late 1980s and most of the 1990s, some of the most cutting-edge typefaces were developed or released by Emigre. Its magazine, in the meantime, provided an outlet showcasing the potential of its typeface designs, and was well known for its graphical experimentation[4].
Emigre has also published a number of books related to graphic design.
Typefaces
Emigre holds licenses to over 300 original typefaces[5], some of which are listed below (see more in the fonts section of Emigre's website).
- Cholla
- Dalliance
- Democratica
- Filosofia (based on Bodoni)
- Journal
- Matrix
- Modula
- Mrs Eaves (based on Baskerville)
- Priori
- Template Gothic
- Vista Sans
References
- ^ http://www.emigre.com/AboutEmigre.php
- ^ http://www.emigre.com/Licko.php
- ^ Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style, Hartley & Marks (2004), page 134: "Licko has exploited the harsh economies of digital plotting routines, slicing from control point to control point not with a knife, file or chisel but with digitized straight lines."
- ^ Heller, Steven and Fili, Louise. Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits, Chronicle Books (2006), page 121: "What Emigre initiated was co-opted by the new mainstream -- from fashion magazines to MTV. Stylistically Emigre was not just the standard bearer, it was the bearer of standards for experimental digital typography."
- ^ http://www.emigre.com/AboutEmigre.php
External links
- Emigre official site
- Interview with founder Rudy Vanderlans Plazm Magazine
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