decreased with the thirty-third issue (winter 1995 ) from a luxurious tabloid
to a standard magazine format, and when the content switched from highly
visual to heavily text, a changed occurred for Licko and Emigre. Licko
relays: “We needed a typeface appropriate for lengthy text setting; this
presented the opportunity to take on the challenge of doing a revival.” For
Licko, this was uncharted territory.
Revivals are common fare for most type designers, and the classics
are fair game for update, renovation, or rehabilitation. Type designers—a
critical lot to say the least—are always finding flaws in original designs that
“drive them crazy.” In Licko’s case, she became fascinated with Baskerville,
the popular alphabet by the English founder John Baskerville ( 1706 – 1775 ),
who influenced the “modern” designs of Didot and Bodoni but had his
work severely criticized during and after his lifetime for being what type
historian D. B. Updike referred to in Printing Types(Harvard, 1922 ) as
“sterile.” “From personal experience, I could sympathize,” Licko wrote in
her 1996 introduction to her own revival of Baskerville, the typeface Mrs
Eaves (named after Sarah Eaves, the live-in housekeeper who became
Baskerville’s wife and later ran his printing business).
Originally revived in 1917 (owing to an interest by Bruce Rogers)
and later reissued by Monotype and Deberny & Peignot, Baskerville often
plays second fiddle to Caslon. But Licko selected it for its familiarity as
well as for its formal features. “Since Baskerville is a neutral and well-
known design,” she explains, “it allowed me significant leeway in the
interpretation, while retaining the familiarity of a classic.” Baskerville was
also chosen because it is the ultimate transitional typeface, the category
between old-style and modern types. Licko states: “I ruled out old-style
models for the idiosyncratic reason that I’m personally not attracted to
typefaces which are reminiscent of calligraphic influences (probably for the
opposite reason why calligraphers tend to dislike bitmap or geometric
designs).” She adds that “an old style would not have been a natural choice,
given my experience and sensibilities.” Her subsequent revival was Bodoni,
but for Emigre’s first-ever text revival, Licko wanted to avoid the austerity
of the thick and thin strokes of early modern design.
Revivals are curious beasts. A designer is usually faced with the
dilemma of either making minor adjustments or radical renovation.
Arguably, the former is what the originator might have done if technology
or other factors were different; the latter challenges the dotted line between
fealty and reinvention. Licko says that there are no conventional limitations
because every type designer brings his or her own perceptions to a
particular face. And, about her own effort, she admits: “Perhaps some
would say that Mrs Eaves is far removed from Baskerville’s basic model and
tuis.
(Tuis.)
#1