Designing the Emigre Magazine Index: Theory and Practice in an Alternative Research Tool

Abstract

Emigre magazine, published from 1984–2005, is often considered a provocative example of experimental publishing, critical writing, and design authorship. Its message remains relevant today, as designers continue to question their roles and the status quo, within and beyond the discipline’s boundaries. To heighten the magazine’s visibility to scholars and a new generation of designers, this author designed a public program focused on Emigre at the Goldstein Museum of Design. The result of this research is the Emigre Magazine Index, an online finding tool that situates the contents of all sixty-nine issues, including typefaces, contributors, and their works, in an interactive context. The Index is publicly accessible and points toward, but does not reproduce, the physical magazine issues. In this paper, the theory and practice behind the project are discussed in relation to hierarchy and navigational issues, digitization challenges, and the significant role that design can play in these things.

Keywords:

• design authorship
• digital humanities
• Emigre magazine
• graphic design history
• magazines
• research tools

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the Goldstein Museum of Design for their support on this project. An early version of this paper was presented at the inaugural Design and the Digital Humanities panel at the Midwest Modern Language Association (M/MLA) national convention in 2013.

Funding

This work was supported by the Jerome Joss Internship Fund from 2011–2012 at the Goldstein Museum of Design, University of Minnesota.

Notes

1. This phrase is the title of the first four issues of Emigre: no. 1, 1984; nos. 2 and 3, 1985; and no. 4, 1986.

2. For examples of museums and design-related website that include Emigre, see San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (https://www.sfmoma.org/search/?q=Emigre), Museum of Modern Art (http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/30189?locale=en&page=1), and the AIGA Design Archives (search using keyword ‘Emigre’) (http://designarchives.aiga.org/#/entries/emigre/_/grid/relevance/asc/0/70/90).

3. For examples of library website that include Emigre, see Stanford University Libraries (http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/2828913), York University Library (https://www.library.yorku.ca/find/Record/1763161), Bibliothèque nationale de France (http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb39233780q/PUBLIC), and Nationale bibliotheek van Nederland (http://opc4.kb.nl/DB=1/SET=1/TTL=1/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=2001&SRT=YOP&TRM=Emigre).

4. For examples of online finding aids, see the Cleveland Museum of Art (http://library.clevelandart.org/museum_archives/finding-aids) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (http://www.philamuseum.org/archives/?page=2). For examples of online collection browsing, see the Walker Art Center (http://www.walkerart.org/collections/browse) and the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/).

5. For examples of this, see single Emigre issues on the Museum of Modern Art website (http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=112319) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art website (http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/17317).

6. Examples of guest editors and designers include, for instance, Vincent van Baar, Gerard Forde, Armand Mevis in Emigre, no. 25, 1993; Anne Burdick in Emigre, nos. 35 and 36, 1995; Andrew Blauvelt in Emigre, no. 40, 1996; and design studio Experimental Jetset in Emigre, no. 57, 2001.

7. Examples of faculty and student involvement include, for instance, Cranbrook Academy of Art Design Department in Emigre, no. 10, 1988 and Nick Bell with London College of Printing students in Emigre, no. 22, 1992.

8. The Index is built with the front-end web technologies HTML/CSS and javascript. Cover artwork and visual type specimens were reproduced in the Index with permission from Emigre, Inc. At the time of development, Emigre fonts were not available for web use, and so three other web fonts were chosen: Copse by Dan Rhatigan, Audimat by Smeltery, and Open Sans by Ascender.

9. Personal correspondence with Lin Nelson-Mayson, Director of the Goldstein Museum of Design, University of Minnesota, January 7, 2015.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessica Barness

Jessica Barness is an Assistant Professor in the School of Visual Communication Design at Kent State University. Her research resides at the intersection of design, humanistic inquiry, and interactivity investigated through a critical, practice-based approach. She has an MFA in Design from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. jessicabarness.com

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