DIGITAL TYPE:anExploration of

EXAMINING THE WORK

of

Zuz icko

ana L

JUST

van r sum

oserik van

landblok&

can do with things that

were not possible with

other technologies. I

like to design letterforms

that work well with the

computer, both for pragmatic

and stylistic reasons.”

-Zuzana Licko

“I like to experiment with what

the computer

“Just as the architects and artists who

developing digital culture worked on

intelligent buildings, Van Rossum and

Van Blokland constructed intelligent

fonts. Theyreacted to the movements of

the mouse as digital letters.”

- The LettError Book

were in the vanguard of

an

DIGITAL TYPE:

Zuzana Licko

Just van Rossum

& Erik

van Blokland

Exploration of

Examining the work of

The typographic catalogs of Zuzana

Licko, Just van Rossum, and Erik van

Blokland contain a variety of

typefaces with a wide range of

The work of these three typographers

is both united and divided by their

varied and eclectic approach, a natural outcome of the three distinct histories, cultures, and to technology that inform the work. Zuzana Licko, the co-creator, along with husband Rudy VanderLans, of Emigre Magazine and Emigre Fonts, is

a Czechoslovakian immigrant whose passion for typography was sparked by a struggle with the aesthetics of

DIGITAL TYPE:

styles and a multitude

of APPLICATIONS.

BITMAP PRINTERS.

approaches

Examining the work of

Just van Rossum and

Erik van Blokland are

Dutch type designers

whose skill for

creating typefaces

is matched equally

by an enthusiasm and

aptitude for computer

programming .

Born only half a decade later,

introduced in January of 1984 -

a technology so powerful that it

not only allowed for the digital

construction of the designs of Licko, van Rossum,

and van Blokland, but in fact offered such a

of options that the digital format itself

became a basis of inspiration for several new typefaces.

The SUCCESS of these three typographers issurely due to, at least in part, their early adoption of MACINTOSH

COMPUTE R,

plentitude

introduced in January of 1984 -

a technology so powerful that it

not only allowed for the digital

construction of the designs of Licko, van Rossum,

and van Blokland, but in fact offered such a

of options that the digital format itself

became a basis of inspiration for several new typefaces.

MACINTOSH COMPUTE R,

the

a technology

POWERFULso

became a basis of

that it

The great quantity of beautiful and innovative typefaces created by Zuzana Licko, Just van Rossum, and Erik

van Blokland for their respective

type foundries is testament to the

wonderful possibilities inherent in an

ever-advancing digital world and stand

as an inspiration for both the type

designers of today, and those of

tomorrow, with its yet-to-be defined

technological developments.

Zuzana Licko was born in 1961 in

Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia.

At age seven, Licko and her family

emigrated to the United States where,

three years later, she had her first

experience with a computer, in the

form of a game called “Space Landing”.

The daughter of a biomathematician,

Licko assisted her father with data

processing during the summers and

designed her first typeface, a Greek

alphabet, for his use. In an interview

with David Earls for his book Designing

Typefaces, Licko commented that she

“enjoyed solving puzzles, whether they

be math, logic or visual.

a technology

POWERFULso

inspirationbecame a basis of

1980

19811982

1983

19841985

19861987

1988

19891990

TYPOGRAPHYPostmodern

Having a maths professor in the

family probably fostered this to a

great degree, which in turn made me

to using the computer as a creative

and problem-solving tool”.

In 1981, Licko enrolled at the

planning to study architecture. After

two years, finding the architecture

program to be too much like business

school, she decided to switch her major

to visual studies. It was during this time period that two pivotal events in her life occurred: first, she met

Rudy VanderLans, her future husband and

business partner, a graduate student

of photography at the time.

receptive

business partner

ARCHITECTURE

University of California at Berkeley,

TYPOGRAPHYPostmodern

IDEAL TOOL

“ t h e

In 1966, five years after the birth of Zuzana Licko,

Just van Rossum was born 800 miles from Bratislava

in the Netherlands city of HAARLEM. Though Erik van

Blokland was born only a year after, the two

did not meet until their enrollment (van Blokland

arriving a year after van Rossum) in the Royal

Academy of Art in The Hague, when their teacher

Gerrit Noordzij introduced them. Both young men had,

like Zuzana Licko, become immensely interested in

the Macintosh computer after its 1984 debut and their

first projects together focused on the computer’s

programming abilities. After Just van Rossum’s

graduation from The Hague in 1988, he was given

IDEAL TOOL f o r m e ”

Secondly, and

equally if not

more important

in terms of her

future career as

a postmodern

typographer,

the first Macintosh

computer, which

Licko refers to as

was unveiled in

early 1984, paving

the way for Licko

and VanderLans’

collaboration on

Emigre Magazine.

a job in Berlin at Erik Spiekermann’s company

MetaDesign, where his first project was the

completion of the typeface Officina. After

his graduation the following year, Erik van

Blokland was invited to join MetaDesign as

well. Nicknamed “the Randomtwins” by Erik Spiekermann, their friendship solidified

through living and working together in Berlin.

Additionally, they began to develop a working

style, one that led to the creation of the

extremely successful business and creative

collaboration they have today. In his book

Dutch Type, Jan Middendorp writes, “Then as

now, they seldom worked jointly on a single

project. After an initial brainstorm session,

tasks are allocated and each goes his own way.

Yet many concepts are the product of their

continuous interaction”. In 1989, van

Rossum and van Blokland’s joint efforts,

established under the heading LettError,

were put on the map by the inclusion of

their experiments with random fonts at the

ATypl conference in Paris, garnering them

a significant amount of both criticism and

praise for their postmodern designs.

The first issue of Emigre magazine was

published in 1984, before the release of the

Macintosh computer. Since Licko and VanderLans

had a limited printing budget, their first

issue was created entirely with the use of

INTERACTION

productcontinuous

the

typewriter text and Xerox copies.The introduction

of the Macintosh computer later on that same

year gave Licko access to the software known as

FontEditor, giving her the ability to design

low-resolution typefaces. In an interview with

Rudy VanderLans in Emigre 15, Licko talks about

the unique appeal of low-res fonts. “Ever since

I was first introduced to graphic design, I heard

everybody say how bad digital type looked and how

it was impossible to make it look any better. This

really intrigued me...So I saw that there was

INTERACTION

productcontinuous

OF THEIR

Low-ResolutionTYPEFACES

THERE

WAS

SOMETHING

unexplored

AND

interesting

THERE

something unexplored and interesting

there and I wanted to try my own hand

at it...I thought that anything I would

do would be better than what was out

there.” Licko’s first three creations,

Emperor, Oakland, and Emigre were proof

that her suspicions were correct; she in creating beautiful, legible type-

faces despite the frustrating

constraints of DOT-MATRIX printers.

Interestingly, Licko credits the

the early technology with a large part

of her success, citing in her and

VanderLans’ book, EMIGRE: GRAPHIC

DESIGN INTO THE DIGITAL REALM, her

tremendously restrictive...if I get

too many choices I become overwhelmed”.

Low-ResolutionTYPEFACES

succeeded

hand

over whelmed

somewhat frustrating restrictions of

enjoyment of “anything that is

LettError type foundry

are centrally informed

by the technology that

created them. Van Rossum

and van Blokland’s first

typeface, Beowolf, is

the result of a ‘hack’

to PostScript technology.

van Rossum and van

Blokland created a ‘randomfont’ which outputs slightly

different character outlines each time it is printed. When viewed

on the screen, the characters that comprise Beowolf appear uniform;

it is only when sent to the printer that the various modifications

are made, creating a slightly different output each time. Beowolf’s

distorted and unpredictable nature may not make it commonplace, but

its groundbreaking conceptual implications grant it a unique place

in typographic history.

“FREAK TO”

Just van Rossum and Erik van Blockland’s

Similar to Zuzana

Licko’s work, the

typefaces of

PostScript outlines are created through a series of computer COMMANDS: lineto, curveto, etc. By inserting a new command,

“FREAK TO”

Just van Rossum and Erik van Blockland’s

NEW ERAushering

In an interview with Emily King of Frieze

magazine, Erik van Blokland commented, “For

a short while, maybe 300 years, there was a

system that meant letters had to be the same.

A mechanical system of producing type meant

that there was one master form and you made

copies of that; it was all very logical. That

is why all the ‘A’s are the same and all of

the ‘B’s are the same. We have grown up

expecting that to happen, but it is the result

of a mechanical process, not for any reason

of understanding or legibility”.

Released in 1990 by FontShop, Beowolf helped

establish the LettError type foundry, which

followed up its release with two other bold and

innovative typefaces whose conception centered

on the use of technology: Kosmik and Twin.

With Kosmik, Erik van Blokland experimented

with a new digital tool – the ‘flipperfont’. A ‘flipperfont’ utilizes a program developed

by van Blokland to have the printer output

one of variety of different options for each

character. Twin, an even more technologically

ambitious typeface, uses this same principle

of ‘randomness’ to create a typeface that is affected by user input. At its debut during

the 2003 TypeCon conference, LettError had

Twin react to audience shouts, creating a

typeface that is truly interactive.

NEW ERAushering

Through an interest in type design and an

imaginative exploration of the possibilities

and limits inherent to new technology, Licko,

van Rossum, and van Blokland have ushered in

an new era of typography. Their willingness

to be open to new ideas and new perceptions

has led us into the age of postmodern

typography, where one can not only produce

elegant, high-resolution designs but create

a typeface so original that it upends our view of traditional typography.

IN A

Designed by

KATHERINE CARBERRY

TypefacesMATRIX SCRIPT

EMPEROR EIGHT

CITIZEN

TRIXIE

DYNAMOE

ADVERT ROUGH

ClassTYPOGRAPHY III

InstructorFRANCHESKA GUERRERO

Works CitedBIL’AK, PETER. “TYPOTHEQUE: LETTERROR, DESIGNERS

AND PROGRAMMERS BY PETER BIL’AK.” TYPOTHEQUE.

COM. TYPOTHEQUE, N.D. WEB. 25 OCT. 2010.

EARLS, DAVID. DESIGNING TYPEFACES. EAST SUSSEX:

ROTOVISION SA, 2002.

KING, EMILY. “LETTERROR.” FRIEZE MAGAZINE.

MARCH-APRIL 1995: 21.

LICKO, ZUZANA AND RUDY VANDERLANS. EMIGRE:

GRAPHIC DESIGN INTO THE DIGITAL REALM.

NEW YORK: BYRON PREISS VISUAL PUBLICATIONS,

INC., 1993.

MIDDENDORP, JAN. DUTCH TYPE. ROTTERDAM: 010

PUBLISHERS, 2004.

RICHARDSON, MARGARET. “RANDOM TWINS: JUST VAN

ROSSUM AND ERIK VAN BLOKLAND REVEAL ALL IN

LETTERROR.” FONTSHOP.COM. FONTSHOP, N.D. WEB.

25 OCT. 2010.

RUBINSTEIN, RHONDA. “ZUZANA LICKO.” EYE MAGAZINE.

SPRING 2002: 43.