interview master

One could say that the magic of Emigre magazine came from three key elements: Zuzana’s fonts; a layout to demonstrate their potential; and Rudy’s extraordinary interviews. It’s often said that only a small portion of the audience bothered to read Emigre thoroughly, so visually astonishing were its layouts, however those who did, discovered deep insights about design culture. It’s lengthy interviews featured an international roster of designers like Vaughan Oliver, April Greiman, Wolfgang Weingart, David Carson, Hard Werken, The Designers Republic, and Experimental Jetset to name just a few.

 

 

Page spread of Emigre magazine, issue No. 19 called Starting from Zero, 1991.

 

Page spread from Emigre magazine. Ray Gun

Page spread from Emigre magazine, issue No. 24 called Neomania, 1992.

 

Page spread from Emigre magazine
Created with Sketch.

it’s not so much a problem of being a woman in a man’s world, it’s being a type designer in a world that gives little recognition to this art form, and i find this disillusioning. —zuzana licko

Cover of The Emigre Catalog 1998. A number 98 on a white and yellow background

Cover of The Emigre Catalog, 1998.

mrs eaves and filosofia

 

In the 1990’s Zuzana changed her focus from designing experimental modular fonts to making interpretations of classical fonts. In 1996 she created a font called Mrs Eaves, inspired by Baskerville, and another called Filosofia, based on Bodoni. Mrs Eaves was named after Sir John Baskerville’s wife. Both fonts went viral. Mrs Eaves was even used in the titles of Penguin Classics books, and in the Wordpress and Pandora logos.

 

 

Cover of Mrs Eaves type specimen. Letters XL in a blue circle
Cover of Matrix II type specimen. Boxes with text samples

Cover of Mrs Eaves type specimen, 2009.

Cover of Matrix II type specimen, 2007.

 

Page spread from The Emigre Catalog, 2001.

Single page of The Emigre Catalog, 2001.

 

Cover of Mr Eaves XL Sans and Modern Narrow type specimen, 2012.

 

Page spread of Base 900 type specimen, 2010.

 

 

Created with Sketch.

when throwing a piece on the potter’s wheel, the conceptualization of the shape can be reduced to a single line of curve transitions, which represents one half of the symmetrical cross section. these curve transitions and balance of form have much in common with constructing curves in letter forms. —zuzana licko

Cover of The Emigre Catalog 1990. A red number 99.01 on a white and pink background

Cover of The Emigre Catalog, 1990.

 

 

ceramics and photography

Emigre magazine hasn’t been published since 2005 yet its team continues to produce new fonts and is creatively as active as ever. Zuzana has always been interested in ceramics, which now composes a significant part of her life. “Over the years I’ve discovered that pottery and type design are connected in many ways,” she told myfonts.com. Her personal page displays ceramic sculptures and vases in addition to typefaces. Rudy has been an active photographer since first arriving in California, with ten photo books to his name—the most recent of which came out in November 2018, entitled Still Lifes, Tokyo.

Zuzana Licko at the pottery wheel, Emeryville, CA
Emigre warehouse, Emeryville, CA. Piles of boxes

Emigre warehouse, Emeryville, CA, 2005.

Zuzana Licko at the pottery wheel, Emeryville, CA, 2005.

 

Rudy VanderLans working with photos in his home studio in Berkeley

Rudy VanderLans in his home studio in Berkeley, 2007.

Emigre office, Sacramento, 1999

Emigre office, Sacramento, 1999.

design with Readymag

editor-in-chief
diana kasay

 

editor
zhdan philippov

 

layout designer and art director

stas aki

 

issue designer

tatiana egoshina

 

text author

vitaly volk

 

photo editor and content manager

tsvetelina miteva

 

photo

courtesy of emigre

stories. emigre

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