One of the pioneers of the new fontography is Zuzana Licko
(b. 1961 ), who started designing typefaces in 1985 for use in Emigre,the
homespun culture tabloid founded in 1983 by her husband Rudy Vander-
Lans (b. 1955 ), a former page designer for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Designing on the early Macintosh before the advent of sophisticated page-
layout programs,WYSIWYG, and Hypercard was itself a feat of ingenuity,
but seeing beyond computer limitations required a vision born of that
proverbial mother—necessity. Licko’s plunge into the design of coarse-
resolution type was prompted by a need to overcome the conformity of
Mac default faces and to create a distinct identity for the fledgling
magazine (not, at that time, recast as the clarion of postmodern graphic
design, which is its legacy today). What Emigrebecame for graphic design
culture is underscored by Licko’s contribution to the history of digital-type
founding; the Emigreventure proved trailblazing on two fronts. Licko’s
early designs—including her initial typefaces (c. 1985 ) called Emperor,
Universal, Oakland, and Emigre—further helped launch the unique type
business Emigre Graphics (later Emigre Fonts), which spawned today’s
indy digital-type industry.
Licko’s education in graphic design and typography (she received a
B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley) included one course in
calligraphy, which, as she recalls, “was nightmarish” because the instructor
insisted that calligraphy could be done properly only with the right hand.
Licko has what she calls “the gift of being left-handed,” and so she did her
homework assignments with her left hand while pretending to use her right
during class time. She admits that “the results were awful!” and, ultimately,
she rejected calligraphy entirely. Nevertheless, Licko recalls that she marveled
at the functional beauty of typefaces while studying graphic design. “I was
blown away when I realized the power that typeface designs have on a
typographic piece of design. Without touching the layout, [just] change the
typeface design, and voilà! you have a completely different design.”
However, the process of designing typefaces remained a mystery
until Licko laid hands on her first Macintosh. “As it turns out, bitmap fonts
were the perfect place for me to start learning about type design because I
love the building-block approach,” she says, referring to the puzzlelike way in
which letterforms were constructed by linking squares (or bits) together.
From that moment on, her experience and skill with more sophisticated
typeface designs evolved at a pace commensurate with the Macintosh’s ability
to produce more complex font programs. However, when she began using her
new Macintosh for Emigre,mastering the new tool, not sophistication, was
the primary issue. She continues: “As graphic designers, we enjoyed the
newfound ability to test and implement the faces directly within our design
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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