How will it be remembered?

Each year it will be remembered as one year older.

I subscribed to U&lc in the 1980s. What vestige of memory I retain is not so much of any particular feature's design, illustration or content (although they were indispensable to the magazine's glamour), but the experience of receiving a very large foundry specimen of new typefaces, regularly, with paragraph showings of multiple weights in various sizes. That was the essence of the publication. (It was backed up by specimen booklets for each typeface, which I, as an agency art director, was given by my type house sales rep on his weekly visits.)

As a legacy, U&lc is a convenient typographic archive that cements and enhances the importance of ITC and its faces during the foundry's heyday, despite their spotty reputation subsequently. However, the design work featured is not representative of typical design work of the era, or any other era--it is exceptional, "creative" work (see above) that appeals to the professional metaculture. So with regards to its content, the magazine's role in history will be myth-making.

Adobe's Font & Function and Emigre's Emigre, in the 1990s, could be compared.

Personally it will be remembered that i found almost the complete issues in a big paper bin when i was just throwing away old newspapers. Of course, i saved this treasure. The design is a creative playground, not necessarily a mirror of its era. But a nice showcase of Ed Benguiat’s work, especially in the early issues.

@J Weltin from Pullach

LOL! We can now safely assume that the Secret Service has finally taken an interest in type. Or has the habit of fowling in dustbins spread to the other inhabitants of Pullach, too?

SCNR
Andreas ;-)

No, Andreas, sorry to disappoint you: i found the magazines years ago in a bin of the village where i grew up, near Lake of Constance. Still being a student i was prowling the bins for food, instead i had to live with U&lc!