Spencer Roberts - Èmigré and Octavia
Spencer
Roberts:
23rd
October
Émigré Magazine
(1994 – 2004)
Use the
magazine émigré – typography magazine, going try and complicate the question
postmodern and modern. Octavia, same time and different aesthetic interests. Émigré
post modern and Octavia modern. Neither of them are straight forward publications.
Aesthetic complexity in both magazines.
Émigré land
mark publication, largely because it wanted to show something different. The
founders were both interested in being both in-between cultures, one is Dutch
the other is Czech. They named the magazine émigré, as of the émigré experience,
new culture that they are in. There point was a new dialogue within the US and
the UK, but the in-between position. This idea of liminality, basically means ‘in-between-ness’.
Gives it a
kind of postmodern meaning in that already, being in a complex position. The
other thing that was going on when émigré came to being was the technological
being. The apple-mac in desktop publishing. As well as being a magazine, also a
contemporary type company. The bitmap font, didn’t have same resolutions as of
that of today. Bitmap font, clearly digitally produced. Zuzanna Licko (partner
and wife) focused on the typefaces, on the apple mac. Émigré had a lot of
influence by the fonts that were distributed throughout the graphic design
community. Visually wild and aesthetic, readily based.
Critical perception:
Massimo
Vignelli (neo modernist)
-
‘A
national calamity’
-
‘An
aberration of culture’
émigré wrote really provocative arguments
David Carson:
Postmodernist
-
Designers
who had once championed their work for its aggressiveness began to condemn it
as too readily identifiable, and there unusable. Beach Culture magazine
published an issue with “no Émigré fonts,” although the logo itself was set in
Lick’s Senator (fonts)
-
Ironically,
it was designers like Carson who had popularised its style.
Stephen Heller:
Middle
ground – design journalism – google with safe position lean towards a modernist
perspective
-
‘A
blip in the continuum’ modernist…
-
‘Cult
of the ugly’ celebrating…
In one of
the things that was interesting about it was that it changed, heavily graphical
as it continues it gets smaller and cumulates in art rather than graphic design.
It highlights that what they were doing as it they were talking about is trying
to highlight a set of political things, in the shape of fonts.
Some of
their outputs, they had allegiances with designers and record companies. Well
known with the 4AD record label, and had covers of Vaughan Oliver. The type is
formed and laid out, very close to the émigré covers. Resonant with émigré. Devoted
an issue with Vaughan Oliver, contextualising his work. Spreads are known for
having a diverse evolving style. In-house émigré style, tricky thing to pin
down. Use of organic experimental type forms. Often collaborated with particular
designers and design groups: designer’s republic. Kind of a collaboration with
David Carson, Experimental Jetset. It’s a combination of punk aesthetic. Very playful
text and experimental, making a splash in that particular period.
Playing out
a political event, if you read the editorial in émigré and in their letters
pages, everything that they talk about it to do with type and composition with
heated debates on what type should be doing. Technological effects on page
design – reflected by political and social shifts in art, culture and mass
communication. All talking about typographic work.
De-stablished
a post war design ethic of ‘righteous form’, that was built on rationalism,
minimalism and modernism (Grid System – Swiss Style).
They didn’t
just produce graphic work, also produced text. Hold this debate on kind of
every level, one of the periods in time graphic designers actively arguing and
defending their positions. People rarely defend their design positions; in émigré
it was literally challenging. Pushing against it in a provocative way, it’s a
rant with visual elements. One of the last issues of Émigré is called ‘RANT’.
Jeffrey
Keedy:
Old and new
modernism:
Analysis
with old and new modernism
Modernism –
8.0 software revisioning and a few new features and wheel it out again / late
80’s early 90’s.
Old modernism:
Mostly black
and white, intended as a critique.
Lots of
white space, puns that everyone understands
Form follows
function, less is more
Collage –
photographic, imamates fine art
Geometric
extraction, ornament is a crime
Pure expression,
precession craftsmanship
Modernism 8.0:
Mostly
black and white with tertiary and a bit of primary colour
Helvetica
Empty Space
Little
ideas and visual slapstick nobody understands
Less is
safe
Underlines
and strikethroughs
Imitates
fine art
Bitmapped
Abstraction
What’s an
ornament?
Whatever
Simplistic
is popular
These two
items coming together is a provocative coming together, intended to provoke
discussion. One of the things that émigré is famous for is its letters to the
editor. As a print based publication of the period, it’s the same with music
design, a kind of engagement with the audience. The Letters pages itself have
been published in book form.
‘Dear Émigré’
Serious
articles and heated back and forth discussion, with the people reading and
writing. Audience is graphic designers = such a niche audience.
Kind of
dissolve and stop publication.
Start producing
audio CD’s, issue 60
Issue 62
was in DVD format
Also dipped
their hands in music publishing.
In parts
these were attempts to move away from a style that was being commercially appropriated
(MTV, mainstream fashion, design and music magazines of the 90’s)
One of the
things that interesting with the whole Helvetica debate, Gary Hustwitt films*
the founders of émigré are the only people who would not talk when Hustwitt was
compiling his film. ‘The guys at émigré declined to be interviewed’ they lean
toward postmodern whereas he leans towards neo-modernist
Where émigré
fits as a magazine, where can we position it? Who came out of the group of
people that produced it?
Stephen McCarthy’s
book Author, Producer, Activist, Entrepreneur, Curator and Collaborator. / is about that exploring the idea of
design as a visual authorship.
“The voice
of new generation of graphic designer: post modern, deconstructed and
experimental. Despite its digital context (apple mac meets sort of dislocated
team of designers and this is what revolts) and being produced off of a
computer, you can map this on the traditions of William Morris and Eric Gill
which is in itself a big influence on Futura and London Underground signage.
(Alice
Twemlo was also influenced by the work of émigré)
Gill named
his typefaces after people close to him (influenced by their personal qualities)
The Cranbrook
academy of art, reference to Cranbook (modernist and post modernist)
Drawing attention
to what text was doing. Visual composition, or textual composition.
Positive exposé
of Cranbrook
Out of
Cranbook we get:
Jeffrey
Keedy, Ed Fella, Lorraine Wild (all incredibly influential people)
CalArts
(also became part of the fold)
The last
person important to mention is Andrew Blauvelt – Walker Art Gallery
-
main
role is designing exhibitions, expressive playfulness. What he’s famous for is
for creating a font and using it for exhibitions, a basic sans serif structure,
and it has clip on serifs. You can introduce a design edition that would allow
you to accommodate any ethos of an exhibition. Playful design intervention a
clip on to a generic font edition. Universal solution, that address the central
tension between modernist and post modernist aesthetics. Post modernist move
but deeply bound up with the aim of the universal mode. It fuses them to a complex
knotted way. Great utility for the
gallery. Perfect for a gallery based institution.
Octavia magazine:
Running
con-currently – magazine that’s concerned with typography for typographers and
designers. Different lineage. Émigré becomes the crucible of unconvential
design.
The
magazine Octavo (8VO) – Similar agenda as émigré (type as image)
But with stronger
modernist looks
8vo on the
outside (book to look at in the library)
The designs
and layouts for Octavo were resolved as full scale mock ups using dummy
typesetting, acetate, paint and so on – trying to get as close as possible to
the appearance of the final printed work. Interesting craft influence in
production.
All laid up
with actual transparencies. Only in the process of printing have a straight
forward machine based aesthetic. 8VO also had an influence on the record
industry. Rather than it be 4AD it was other independent factory record labels.
Not a
straight forward modernism, heavily gridded plays with the grid structures of Swiss
typographic punk.
Dutch neo modernist
writing about Octavia, the Broken Surface.
New wave in
typography, never reached the Netherlands.
Expressive
neo modernist alternative to that of émigré.
Serve as a
really interesting comparison.
If you go
back to Vaughan Oliver, when
he talks about his own design work he makes a huge deal about that he always
starts is either some part of the human form, or some kind of object that has a
poetic resonance. Playfully experimenting.
Similar
flavour to their album covers, and address similar audiences. 4AD and Factory –
merged together.
Knotted complexity
within modern and post modern in their work. Kind of rich mode of production
and spend an awful lot of time with. Immerse yourself in its many layers.
Compendium
of émigrés work.