In the mid-1980s, Zuzana Licko and husband Rudy VanderLans founded Emigre, also known as Emigre Graphics. The magazine, Emigre, was then created in 1984. This magazine designed and distributed original fonts under the direction of its editor, who was VanderLans. Licko was responsible for many successful Emigre fonts.
Licko was initially exposed to Macintosh computers with the first release in 1984.
| “ | I started my venture with bitmap type designs, created for the coarse resolutions of the computer screen and dot matrix printer. The challenge was that because the early computers were so limited in what they could do you really had to design something special. Even if it was difficult to adapt calligraphy to lead and later lead to photo technology, it could be done, but it was physically impossible to adapt 8-point Goudy Old Style to 72 dots to the inch. In the end you couldn't tell Goudy Old Style from Times Roman or any other serif text face'" (18). | ” |
Apart from adding new typefaces as a form of content, Émigré was also created as a way to share the typefaces with other designers that liked and wanted to use Zuzana’s creations. As technology advanced, Zuzana moved from bitmap fonts to high resolution designs and based the newer designs on the ones initially created for dot matrix printers. In the mid-1990s, Licko worked on two notable revivals: Mrs Eaves, based on Baskerville, and Filosofia, based on Bodoni. Both are Licko's personal interpretations of their historical models and each features extensive ligatures. Mrs. Eaves was actually named after John Baskerville's lover and is also a kind of revival of Baskerville typeface but somewhat stylized. Along with ligatures Licko stylized Baskerville through the use of small caps or "petite caps".
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