Zuzana Licko
| Zuzana Licko | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Zuzana Ličko Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | Graphic designer |
| Notable work | Fonts & Emigre magazine |
| Movement | emigre |
Zuzana Licko (born Zuzana Ličko, 1961) is a Slovak-born American type designer known for co-founding the graphic design magazine Emigre and for creating numerous typefaces, including Mrs Eaves.
Licko who was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Licko came to the United States when she was a child, along with her family. She studied architecture, photography and computer programming before earning a degree in graphic communications at the University of California at Berkeley.
Licko's father was a biomathematician and at the University of California, San Francisco. Through his job, she became involved with computers during the summer months, helping him with data processing work. The first font she created was designed in the Greek alphabet for her father.
When she started her university education, her goal was to earn a degree in architecture, but she changed to a visual studies major because she believed becoming an architect was too similar to going to business school. While at Berkeley, Licko took a calligraphy class, which was her least favorite because she had to write with her right hand even though she was left handed. This experience influenced her when she started working on type design, which was more computer-based.
In an interview featured in Eye, Licko described her creative relationship with her husband Rudy Vanderlans:
In the mid-1980s, Licko and VanderLans founded Emigre, also known as Emigre Graphics. The magazine, Emigre, was created in 1984. This magazine [1] designed and distributed original fonts under the direction of VanderLans, its editor. Licko was responsible for many successful Emigre fonts.
Licko was initially exposed to Macintosh computers with the first release in 1984.
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 Licko's creations. As technology advanced, Licko 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 named after John Baskerville's lover; it is a somewhat stylized revival of the Baskerville typeface. Along with ligatures, Licko stylized Baskerville through the use of small caps or "petite caps".
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