More Emigre

The covers of some of the Emigre Magazines.

- Posted by Mindy

What is wrong with the Dutch?

I think the Dutch people are pretty cool. But apparently Austin Powers dad hates them, now is it just him or is it an american thing to hate the dutch.

Are the Dutches Really Crazy?

Dr. Evil sure thinks so.

That's so Dutch!

While perusing the internet to find interesting Dutch-ness relating to graphic design I came across a page that both shows the ingenuity and aesthetics of a contemporary firm in the Netherlands. LUST Studio in the Hague is interesting invitation in new thinking for American designers.

Design philosophy revolves around Process-based and Generative-based Design. Interested in exploring new pathways for design at the precarious edge where new media and information technologies, architecture and urban planning and graphic design overlap. Topics include graphic design typography abstract cartography mapping architecture urban media installations archiving data-visualizations random mistake-ism fonts type design new media interactive webdesign internet art big bang chaos

Their interesting take on web design and connection to Dutch history can be shown through a fun little game here. neoplasticism has never been so amusing.

Posted by Devon Cloutier

Layout from issue 4 of Emigre

Later on down the road VanderLans became influenced by the works and thoughts of Henk Elenga, a founding member of a Dutch design magazine called Hard Werken. VanderLans wanted to enrich the non-traditional aesthetic of Emigre and so he started to experiment with pre-press stripping techniques. The stripping experiments led to a monochrome look, which combined with Emigre's typefaces, created a real recognizable visual style.
- Posted by Mindy 

Dutch Design

Dutch graphic design has made a significant contribution to the history and development of design with the influence of certain key individuals extending internationally; names such as A.A.M.Stols, Jean François van Royen, Piet Zwart, Paul Schuitema, Jan van Toorn, Martens and many more have found or are finding a place in the history of 20th century typography and graphic design.

Layout from issue 1 of Emigre

In Emigre, VanderLans wanted to communicate the struggle of the immigrant artists through his layouts and so in an effort to create that emotion, VanderLans rejected traditional layouts.  For the first issue, VanderLans used a Xerox machine to enlarge and shrink typewriter fonts. He also decided to tear the images that were to be featured in his magazine and collage them together instead of cleanly displaying them.
- Posted by Mindy

Influence of de Stijl

The influence of the de stijl movement are everywhere :)

In the early 1920's a group of architects and artists, influenced by some of the ideas of DaDa, formed a movement called de Stijl (Dutch for The Style). Theirs was a utopian philosophical approach to aesthetics, centered in a publication called de Stijl, which presented their ideas and designs. The founder of the publication and leader of the group was Theo van Doesburg, an architect. Other important participants were Gerrit Rietveld and Piet Mondrian.

Typography, with a little De Stijl Design

This video does not really talk about de stijl but as you can see this video is about typographers in general but uses the de stijl designs as the visual to the video. The audio may be kind of rough but the visual is done well on my thought.

Letterlab!

The Dutch are at it again.
Realizing that it isn't enough to have the De Stijl movement, the founders of Emigre Magazine, as well as dashing actor Wim Crouwel who made a (relatively) recent appearance in Gary Hustwit's film 'Helvetica.'

Now the Dutch are training their youth in the importance and language of typography
The Dutch Graphic Design Museum are offering these lessons as part of their exhibition called Letterlab which you can check out here.

if you're too lazy to click this is directly from that link:

Letterlab gets children to realise that the letters we use for reading have a history of development, that they are designed, and that the way in which that takes place determines how the letter functions.

In other words they're learning what twenty-something college students are paying to make a career of at a much earlier age.

Learning a language early can make it come easier. What happens when a child learns the language of design?

Short Intro

I could not describe De Stijl any better in this video. It is a short and dirty version of it.

When I got done watching this I was so surprised by how much information it gave off by telling so little. The video makes you kind of interested in it and makes you want to go and search more about it.

UPDATE on De Stijl book reading...

It has been pretty good so far, just by reading a few pages I have learned a few good things about De Stijl...will get back to you guys on a summary.

The Founders of Emigre

Rudy VanderLans and his wife Zuzana Licko
- Posted by Mindy

Interesting facts about Emigre

1. Emigre means immigrant.
2. The main idea of the magazine in the beginning was to showcase the art and design work of Dutch immigrants living in California. 
3. Subjects like boundaries, international culture, alienation, and the effects on people and their art and design were the main focus of the first 8 issues.
4. The things that really got people talking, when it came to the Emigre magazine, was the type layout and type choices that rejected traditional grid structures, ideas of legibility and aesthetics.   -Posted by Mindy

Emigre Fonts

- Posted by Mindy

De Stijl book

I have ordered this book for more knowledge of De Stijl.

I will get back to you on the reviews of the book to see if it is worth getting.

Emigre

Emigre Fonts, the first digital type foundry, was launched by Rudy Vanderlans and his wife ZuZana Licko in 1984, after Licko recognized a useful tool for constructing typefaces digitally with the introduction of the Macintosh computer. Emigre introduced early dot-matrix fonts, and when technology improved, issued high resolution typefaces. At the same time they published the Emigre magazine which was a testing ground for their digital experimentation. It provided a forum for a growing community of digital designers and was the source of spreading their enthusiasm for new technology. They produced 69 issues of the Emigre magazine from 1984 to 2005. - Posted by Mindy

Welcome dutch designers

Welcome to the dutch typeface design website.  In future post we will post up any findings of anything related to the dutch typeface designs.