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Emigre #11  — Graphic Designers and the Macintosh Computer

In coordination with “Inflection Point,” a new essay on Emigre, we’re posting a digital version of the magazine’s influential eleventh issue.

Pages 2–3, <cite>Emigre</cite> #11, Berkeley, Emigre Graphics, 1989.
Front cover, Emigre #11, Berkeley, Emigre Graphics, 1989.

Published in 1989, Emigre magazine’s eleventh issue, Ambition/Fear: Graphic Designers and the Macintosh Computer, contains vivid artifacts of a discipline’s first encounter with digital tools. From the aesthetics of bitmaps to the expressive interventions made possible by new access to typesetting controls, not to mention the self-publishing venture of the magazine itself, this issue combines modernist and postmodern agendas in a model construction of text-based community.

This is the first of many issues of Emigre to be digitized in its entirety by Letterform Archive and it coincides with the publication of “Inflection Point” a rigorously researched essay about Emigre #11 by writer/designer Emily McVarish. The essay takes a close look at Emigre #11, analyzing the technical, critical, and cultural production that would shape Emigre as a medium for typographic demonstration and discussion among peers. Presented in the format of a type specimen catalog, the essay can be downloaded in PDF format for free, or you can order a printed copy, on the Emigre website.

Letterform Archive houses a complete run of Emigre magazine among other archival material, much of which is in the process of being digitized and made available for viewing.

All images in this gallery are high res and zoomable. Click an image to enter fullscreen view, then pinch (on trackpad or mobile) or use browser zoom (on desktop).


These images are © Emigre, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Update: Apr 27, 2020 — Every issue of Emigre is now available in the Online Archive.