Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Progressive Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century
—Steven Heller

Another sign that design history is gaining much needed importance is the release of Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant-Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century by Steven Heller. Merz to Emigre is a tremendous research effort — one that consumed three years of Heller’s life and included a good deal of his personal collection of periodicals as subject matter.

Anyone that publishes anywhere or has an interest in design, typography or a DIY ethos is going to appreciate this. Heller has taken the sprawling history of avant-garde periodicals, and tied it together with beautiful reproductions — often in all of their time worn glory. Starting with La Charivari’s (1830) letter-pressed goodness, all the way to Emigre (1984 – present) and the “desktop revolution.” Heller links publications from different avant-garde periods with minute detail: Art Nouveau, Dada, Surrealism, Futurism, Constructivism, Modernism, Erotic Underground, Psychedelic, Punk, Deconstructivism and Comix, leading up to but not including Internet publications — and that’s a good thing considering the time span that is already examined.

Merz to Emigre shows how revolutionary these periodicals were for their time. When was the last time you picked up a magazine that you thought was groundbreaking besides early RayGun? Which brings up the always-interesting topic — for me personally — of design’s identity crises of the past few years. Where does design stand today? What is defining today’s design? Hopefully it isn’t always corporate work, but sometimes it feels that way.

Looking back at the earlier art movements which were juxtaposed against coinciding avant-garde journals or periodicals that are featured in Merz to Emigre, you can see how they sometimes co-opted for commercial use. It took quite a while for this to happen to the surrealists and the ’70s punks, but advertisers eventually caught on and exploited where necessary. I guess the only difference today is that it happens in real time. And this is certainly not only seen in art, as watching a few days of U.S. television will surely feature recording artists such as the Flaming Lips, Moby, Amon Tobin or the late Nick Drake selling cars or soda.

I really don’t envy the next person that attempts to make sense of today’s underground publishers, as the Internet is going to prove to be a mind-numbing venture to catalog, much less explain.

Now, instead of buying a design annual with pretty pictures (I buy them too), go out and get a copy of Merz to Emigre. You’re also going to want a copy of Rick Poynor’s Typographica, (reviewed in a previous issue), as it is an excellent companion and is only mentioned in passing in Merz to Emigre.

You can also hear a great interview with Steven Heller on the Speakeasy on WFMU.org’s site.

Type Info

Hans Dieter Reichert of Baseline magazine and HDR Visual Communication — both based in the United Kingdom — beautifully handled the design of Merz to Emigre.

The book is set in Grotesque Monotype in the following weights: light, roman and bold.

His choices for the typeface and design/layout were “to reflect the contents of the book (rugged/early avant-garde/idiosyncratic/full of character — still classical and full of quality) without compromising the readability or legibility of the text. The layout is laid-back (classic colors: black for main text, red for captions) to let the actual text and publications speak. Chapter openers are enlargements of a selected cover from the particular chapter.”

Han’s design approach for the book was “to stand back and not try to style it — to be invisible and draw the attention to the actual samples. Let the selected publications speak for themselves — they are beautiful in their own right and very important.”

Phaidon

Review by: Jarrett Kertesz