Rudy VanderLans co-founded Emigre magazine, an experimental graphic design journal and typeface foundry, with his wife Zuzana Licko in 1984. The most influential graphic design magazine of its generation, Emigre published its final issue in November 2005. The firm remains active as Emigre, Inc., a fully digital type foundry and publisher of computer software that enables designers to custom design fonts.

Between 1974 and 1979 VanderLans studied graphic design at The Hague's Royal Academy of Fine Art. He worked for a number of design firms, including Wim Crouwel's Total Design studio, before moving to California in 1981 to study photography at the University of California, Berkeley. Photography has remained a parallel interest of Vanderlans, and he has exhibited and published many series of pictures on the California environment.