![]() Gotham is a versatile typeface that is highly adaptable to virtually any design. The font also offers designs tailored for screen display and a rounded version. Its large x-height and wide apertures, making it highly legible and readable. Gotham has a rich set of special characters, such as fractions, ligatures, arrows, and symbols. The font’s design has similar features to earlier serif typeface designs, such as Times New Roman or Bodoni. The font name comes from New York’s nickname, “Gotham City.” The Gotham font family consists of eight weights with four widths: Regular, Bold, Black, and Extra Black. Let’s find out more about the font, effectivity of the font, and best font pairing options. The Gotham font family was released with ten fonts and complementary italic styles, encompassing serif and sans-serif letterforms. The font was commissioned by GQ magazine and released to the public in 2002 by Hoefler & Co Foundry. While USA Today has called Gotham the font of the decade, it certainly has proven to be a typeface we can believe in.Gotham is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by American type designer Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000. Earlier this year Narrow and Extra Narrow variations were introduced, creating a total of 66 Gotham styles. In 2007, after Print’s exclusivity had passed, the font became available to the general public. First used by the short-lived John Edwards campaign, it was Barack Obama's successful run that made the font more popular than ever.ĭue to its popularity, a Rounded variant was created in 2005-again the result of a commission, this time from the graphic design magazine Print. presidential elections were particularly good for Gotham. ![]() Perhaps due to its bold ‘American’ feel, the 2008 U.S. Spreading rapidly, it has been used in newspapers, corporate logos, movie posters, and packaging for brands like Coca-Cola, Netflix, Crest, and countless others. In 2002, GQ’s exclusive license had expired and the typeface was released publicly. I didn't think anything new could have been found there, but luckily for me (and the client), I was mistaken.” From Bus Terminal to Campaign Trail ![]() Interestingly, Frere-Jones admits Gotham may never had happened without the GQ commission: “The humanist and the geometric… had already been thoroughly staked out and developed by past designers. As put by Newsweek, “Unlike other sans serif typefaces, it's not German, it's not French, it's not Swiss. This process gave the design a unique quality often missing from geometric faces, while its vintage New York sources distinguish it as a notably American typeface. In drawing Gotham, Frere-Jones used the “mathematical reasoning of a draftsman” (over his instincts as type designer) allowing the letters to escape the grid wherever necessary. Tobias Frere-Jones, from a Helvetica film outtake It was born outside of type design, in some other world and has a very distinct flavor from that. It's the kind of letter an engineer would make. ![]() The lettering over the front door is this very plain geometric letter, but its not the type of letter that a type designer would make. And we both noticed the letting on the Port Authority Bus Terminal up on 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. We both grew up in the city and independently we've walked around the streets and earmarked pieces of lettering or signage that we thought would be a good seed, or starting point for a project somewhere down the line. Using the seemingly plain, geometric lettering from New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal as the project’s touchstone, an American “working class” typeface was born. Provided with a brief to create something “masculine, new, and fresh,” type designer Tobias Frere-Jones drew influences from post-war building signage and hand-painted letters seen around New York City. Gotham was born in 2000, when men’s fashion magazine GQ commissioned New York-based Hoefler & Frere-Jones to create a new typeface for use in their publication. Perhaps most well known from the successful Obama ’08 presidential campaign, Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ Gotham has been referred to as the typeface of the decade-and it’s the subject of the fourth installment in our ‘Know your type’ series.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |