Emigre

エミグレ / 1984–2005 / Style / Type Classification

The magazine and foundry that turned digital coarseness into an aesthetic the moment the Mac appeared: bitmap faces, colliding layers and a defense of difficulty at the center of the 1990s design debates.

Emigre — AI-generated interpretation 1
AI-generated interpretation, not a reference work
Emigre — Zuzana Licko, Filosofia 1996 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Kateallalong
Zuzana Licko, Filosofia 1996 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Kateallalong
Emigre — Barry Deck, Template Gothic 1990 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Adqlth
Barry Deck, Template Gothic 1990 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Adqlth

At a glance

Visual cues

  • Bitmap typefaces
  • Colliding layers
  • An experiment per issue
  • Challenges to readability

Best used for

  • Magazines and specimens about type itself, rebuilt from scratch each issue
  • Low-resolution screens shown as a character rather than a defect

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Dictionary entry

Type
Pixel stepping enlarged, not smoothed, several unlike faces on a page
Composition
The grid discarded each issue, text and image layered over each other
Material
Screen coarseness carried into print, paper white treated as glow
Caution
Making difficulty the goal drains away the argument that once made it an experiment, leaving only a page where information fails to arrive.
Further study
Zuzana Licko's typefaces / Rudy VanderLans / the Emigre debates

Related entries

Often confused with

More from Type Classification

Continue through styles in the same Type Classification family, prioritised by shared effects.

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Cite this entry

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https://indexstyle.org/styles/emigre
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[Emigre — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/emigre)
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