Rudy VanderLans

Rudy VanderLans (born 1955, Voorburg) is a Dutch graphic designer, photographer, and the co-founder of Emigre Fonts with his wife Zuzana Licko.

Emigre Fonts is an independent type foundry in Berkeley, CA.

VanderLans was first introduced to type design while at KABK, where the well-known Dutch type designer and teacher Gerrit Noordzij had started an ambitious and influential type and lettering program in 1970.

VanderLans studied graphic design at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague (KABK) and graduated in 1979.

He worked as an apprentice designer at Wim Crouwel's Total Design in Amsterdam and as a junior designer at Form Vijf and Tel Design in The Hague.

Since arriving in California in 1981, he has been photographing his adoptive Golden State as an ongoing side project.

He has authored a total of 11 photo books on the topic, and staged two solo exhibits at Gallery 16 in San Francisco.

In 1981, he moved to California and studied photography at the University of California, Berkeley where he met Licko.

As a parallel interest to his design ventures, VanderLans has been photographing the California environment since he moved there from the Netherlands in 1981.

He has authored a total of eleven photo books on the topic, and staged two solo exhibits at Gallery 16 in San Francisco.

Photography books

From 1983–85, he worked as a graphic designer and illustrator in the art department at the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.

He was also the art director and editor of Emigre magazine, the journal devoted to visual communications from 1984 to 2005.

From 1984 until 2005 VanderLans published, edited, and designed Emigre magazine, a quarterly publication devoted to visual communication and known for its inclusion of design discourse.

Andrew Blauvelt, whose writing often occurred in the magazine, wrote that "Emigre covered emerging graphic designers and typographers seldom profiled in typical industry publications. It also published spirited design criticism in its pages–finding itself to be both the message and the messenger of many debates.”

Licko and VanderLans were early adopters of the personal computer, and Emigre's launch coincided with the release of the Macintosh computer.

They used the new technology to create some of the very first digital layouts and typeface designs.

Exposure of Zuzana Licko's fonts through the magazine led to VanderLans and Licko founding Emigre Fonts in 1985.

VanderLans’ main contribution to Emigre Fonts continue to be his type specimen designs.

In a review of the book Emigre Fonts: Type Specimens 1986-2016, critic Kenneth FitzGerald remarked that “Emigre’s specimens are notable for the negotiation of practical considerations and creative idealism—the essence of all graphic design.

They demonstrate an adept dovetailing of these concerns, crafting a format that stimulates desire then provides an efficient vehicle for satisfying it.

A balance is struck between providing an enthusing context for the type while not overwhelming it.

Though far from 'neutral,' the framework is evocative and clear.”

Their experimental design aesthetics earned them equal amounts of praise and criticism in the 1990s.

When asked in 2001 for a contribution to a Noordzij tribute, VanderLans wrote: “Noordzij is a very distant memory for me.

Although any wisdom regarding type that I carry with me must have come from him.

VanderLans has received honorary Doctor of Arts degrees from Rhode Island School of Design (2004) and California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California (2005).