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Gotham (typeface)

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Gotham
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationGeometric[1]
Designer(s)Tobias Frere-Jones
Jesse Ragan[2]
FoundryHoefler & Co.
Date released2002
VariationsGotham Rounded, Gotham Condensed, Gotham Narrow, Gotham X-Narrow, Gotham Bold

Gothamis a geometricsans-seriftypeface family designed by American type designerTobias Frere-Joneswith Jesse Ragan and released through theHoefler & Frere-Jonesfoundry from 2002. Gotham's letterforms were inspired by examples of architecturalsignsof the mid-twentieth century.[3][4][5]Gotham has a relatively broad design with a reasonably highx-heightand wideapertures.[6]

Since creation, Gotham has been highly visible due to its appearance in many notable places.[7]This has includedBarack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign,Michigan State University branding,[8]and the2016 federal election campaignof theAustralian Labor Party.[9]The font has also been used on the cornerstone of theOne World Trade Centerin New York. It is also the current font used inMPA title cards for film trailers in the U.S.

Developed for professional use, Gotham is an extremely large family, featuring four widths, eight weights, and separate designs for screen display and a rounded version. It is published byHoefler & Co.,the company of Frere-Jones' former business partnerJonathan Hoefler.[10]

Creation and style

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The Gotham typeface was initially commissioned byGQmagazine, whose editors wanted to display a sans-serif with a "geometric structure" that would look "masculine, new, and fresh" for their magazine.GQagreed that they needed something "that was going to be very fresh and very established to have a sort of credible voice to it," according to Hoefler.[11]

Frere-Jones' inspiration for the typeface came from time spent walking block-by-block throughManhattanwith a camera to find source material,[12]and he based the font on the lettering seen in older buildings, especially the sign on the Eighth Avenue façade of thePort Authority Bus Terminal."I suppose there's a hidden personal agenda in the design," Frere-Jones said, "to preserve those old pieces of New York that could be wiped out before they're appreciated. Having grown up here, I was always fond of the 'old' New York and its lettering."[12]

The lettering that inspired this typeface originated from the style of 1920s era sans-serifs likeFutura,where "Type, like architecture, like the organization of society itself, was to be reduced to its bare, efficient essentials, rid of undesirable, local or ethnic elements." This theme was found frequently in Depression-era type in both North America and Europe, particularly Germany.[13]This simplification of type is characterized by Frere-Jones as "not the kind of letter a type designer would make. It's the kind of letter an engineer would make. It was born outside the type design in some other world and has a very distinct flavor from that."[11]Paul Shawcommented that the letterforms Gotham was based on "were geometric yet they did not look like Futura. Their widths were more uniform and less classical, bowls were larger".[5]

Reviews of Gotham focus on its identity as something both American and specific to New York City. According to David Dunlap ofThe New York Times,Gotham "deliberately evokes the blocky no-nonsense, unselfconscious architectural lettering that dominated the [New York] streetscape from the 1930s through the 1960s."[14]Andrew Romano ofNewsweekconcurs. "Unlike other sans serif typefaces, it's not German, it's not French, it's not Swiss," he said. "It's very American."[15]

According to Frere-Jones, Gotham wouldn't have happened without theGQcommission. "The humanist and the geometric... had already been thoroughly staked out and developed by past designers. I didn't think anything new could have been found there, but luckily for me (and the client), I was mistaken."[12]

Notable uses

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On the Freedom Tower

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Gotham was prominently featured in 2004 as the typeface on the cornerstone for theFreedom Towerat theWorld Trade Center site,itself owned by thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey.In aFourth of Julyspeech at its unveiling, then-GovernorGeorge Patakicited the cornerstone as the "bedrock of our state". The text is written in all-uppercase letters, which was criticized, as some wanted a mix of upper and lower-case to "give the words a human voice."[14]

By the Obama campaign

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Gotham used by the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.

Early materials for the2008 Obama campaignused the serifPerpetua.Later, however, upon hiring John Slabyk and Scott Thomas, the campaign made the change to Gotham, and the font was used on numerous signs and posters for the campaign.[16]

TheInternational Herald Tribunepraised the choice for its "potent, if unspoken, combination of contemporary sophistication (a nod to his suits) with nostalgia for America's past and a sense of duty."[17]John Berry, an author of books on typography, agreed: "It's funny to see it used in a political campaign because on the one hand it's almost too ordinary yet that's the point. It has the sense of trustworthiness because you've seen it everywhere."[18]Graphic designerBrian Collinsnoted that Gotham was the "linchpin" to Obama's entire campaign imagery.[19]

Observers of theprimaryand general elections compared Obama's design choices favorably to those made by his opponents. In her campaign,Hillary ClintonusedNew Baskerville,a serif used by book publishers, law firms and universities, whileJohn McCainusedOptima,the same font used for theVietnam Veterans Memorial.[17][20]It also has to be noticed that while the Obama campaign material still used the Perpetua typeface, the short-livedJohn Edwardscampaign was already using Gotham Ultra.[21]

After Obama won the presidency, Gotham and similar typefaces found their way into various federal government projects, most notably the identity of the2010 United States Census.

Other examples

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Gotham has been used in other commercial media, as well.Coca-Cola,television showsConan,MauryandSaturday Night Live,theTribeca Film Festival,theQwestadvertisements, and theGeorgiaGovernor's Office of Customer Service have all used Gotham in logos.[16]The Georgia state government cited Gotham's "clean, fresh lines" and variations that "offer a variety of options for use in all marketing, advertising and signage applications" as reason for its use.[22]Starbucksused the typeface in conjunction with the2008 presidential electionto advertise an offer of free coffee to people who vote.[23][24]The typographical logo of theNational September 11 Memorial & Museum,designed byLandor Associates,features a style mixture of Gotham and Verlag, another H & FJ typeface.[25]

Frere-Jones said about the typeface when it was released in 2002:

With Gotham's origin—and my own stubborn opinions—I think that anywhere in the suburban sprawl would be the worst place for it: advertising for featureless subdivisions, the specials board at the Exit 23Dairy Queen,bumper stickers that say 'I [heart] my SUV' and so on.[12]

Gotham was also the font of theEurovision Song Contestfrom 2013 to 2022, and since 2015, the font has been used in the generic logo of the contest.[26][27][28]

Philippinemedia conglomerateABS-CBN Corporation,its namesake television network,conglomerate's divisions such asABS-CBN Entertainment,ABS-CBN News,ABS-CBN Sports,andABS-CBN Foundationuse the Gotham typeface since September 9, 2013 as one of the main fonts along withRotis Semi Serifsince January 1, 2000 and Azo Sans (designed in 2012 by Rui Abreu) starting on a variation of ABS-CBN Entertainment (later ABS-CBN Studios from 2024) logo in 2021, with the Rotis typeface continued to be used on the ABS-CBN text as the modified and custom version of the said font known as Kapamilya Semi Sans. It is notably used on logos ofKapamilya Channel(launched on 13 June 2020) andA2Z Channel 11(launched on 6 October 2020).[29][30]

On 30 May 2014,Twitterannounced, "Starting today, we're rolling out a new font on twitter.com, moving fromHelvetica Neueto Gotham ".[31]The change was reverted on 3 September 2014.[32]

Gotham is the official font of New York University,[33]Michigan State University,[34]Rowan University,[35]theSingapore University of Technology and Design,[36]and was the primary brand typeface of theUniversity of Waterlooand remains in use in logos and signage in conjunction with newly introduced brand typefaces.[37]

Gotham was also the font used byNetflix,until 2018 when to reduce expenses in licensing fees, Netflix created its own bespoke font, Netflix Sans.[38]

Gotham was the font family used by most government agencies in the Australian state ofNew South Walesuntil 2021 when it changed toPublic Sans.[39]

Since 23 October 2009,Telkom Indonesiauses the Gotham Rounded for the primary use (in its logo) and Gotham Regular as the secondary font for its corporate communications use.[40]

Variations

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Gotham originally was introduced with anobliqueas well as a range of widths.[4]In 2007, a Rounded variant was introduced due to a commission fromPrintmagazine.[41]In 2009, Hoefler and Frere-Jones introduced new Narrow and Extra Narrow versions.[42]On April 4, 2011, Hoefler and Frere-Jones announced that they had created a new wordmark based on Gotham with serifs for the use of President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign. In announcing the news they wrote: "Can We Add Serifs to Gotham? For the President of The United States?Yes We Can."[43]The design was not released publicly.

Cyrillic and Greek characters were added in an April 2015 update.[44][45][46]By this time Frere-Jones had left the company;Fonts in Usereports Malou Verlomme andSara Soskolneas having cooperated on the additional alphabets.[47]

References

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  1. ^"Gotham: Special Features".Hoefler & Frere-Jones.Archived fromthe originalon 2006-11-27.Retrieved26 April2020.
  2. ^"Gotham: Overview".Hoefler Type Foundry (archived). Archived fromthe originalon 7 February 2003.Retrieved14 September2019.
  3. ^"An American Vernacular".Hoefler Type Foundry (archived). Archived fromthe originalon 2 February 2003.Retrieved14 September2019.
  4. ^ab"Gotham:History".Hoefler & Frere-Jones.Retrieved2009-01-25.
  5. ^abShaw, Paul(2017).Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past.Yale University Press. pp. 222–3.ISBN978-0-300-21929-6.
  6. ^Berry, John (7 April 2003)."Type Off The Wall".Creative Pro.Retrieved28 September2019.
  7. ^Hawley, Rachel."How this one font took over the world".The Outline.Retrieved28 September2019.
  8. ^University, Michigan State."The MSU Brand - Design and Visual Identity".brand.msu.edu.Retrieved2019-11-24.
  9. ^Butterick, Matthew."Typography 2020: A Special Listicle for America".Practical Typography.Retrieved28 September2019.
  10. ^Covey, Jacob."Gotham".Hilobrow.Retrieved14 September2019.
  11. ^abHustwit, Gary (2 February 2008)."A Font You Can Believe In".HelveticaFilm.com. Archived fromthe originalon 5 September 2012.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  12. ^abcdSiegel, Dimitri (8 August 2002)."Is Gotham the New Interstate?".The Morning News.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  13. ^Werner, Paul T. (16 July 2004)."Freedom Tower Type".AIGA Journal of Design.Archived fromthe originalon 2008-10-12.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  14. ^abDunlap, David (8 July 2004)."9/11 Cornerstone, Chiseled With a New York Accent".New York Times.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  15. ^Romano, Andrew (27 February 2008)."Expertinent: Why the Obama" Brand "Is Working".Newsweek. Archived fromthe originalon 4 February 2009.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  16. ^abDoctor, Eric (7 November 2008)."Campaign messages marked by typography".The Rice Thresher. Archived fromthe originalon 22 January 2009.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  17. ^abRawsthorn, Alice (6 April 2008)."Brand Obama, a leader in the image war".International Herald Tribune.Retrieved2011-02-19.
  18. ^Tschorn, Adam (2 April 2008)."The Character Issue".Los Angeles Times.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  19. ^Heller, Steven (2 April 2008)."To the Letter Born".New York Times.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  20. ^"...and Non-Fontogenic..."Hoefler & Frere-Jones. 21 February 2008.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  21. ^"A Change We Made".Hoefler & Frere-Jones. 4 January 2008.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  22. ^"Governor's Office of Customer Service Brand Standards Manual"(PDF).Georgia Governor's Office of Customer Service. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2010-05-27.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  23. ^Neale, McDavitt Van Fleet (3 November 2008)."Starbucks Using Gotham Typeface to Endorse Obama?".Archived fromthe originalon 5 January 2009.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  24. ^"If you vote, Starbucks buys your coffee".YouTube. Archived fromthe originalon 2008-11-06.Retrieved2009-01-25.
  25. ^Dunlap, David W. (2011-11-18)."Can't Place the Name, but the Typeface Is Familiar".The New York Times.
  26. ^"Malmö 2013: We are one".Eurovision.tv.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-06-09.Retrieved2017-02-01.
  27. ^"Presenting: Theme Art of Eurovision 2014".Eurovision.tv.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-06-08.Retrieved2017-02-01.
  28. ^"Eurovision 2015 theme artwork is here!".Eurovision.tv.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-05-05.Retrieved2017-02-01.
  29. ^"Company History, About ABS-CBN Corporation".ABS-CBN Corporation.Retrieved2019-09-01.
  30. ^Kwento ng Kasiyahan: The Grand Kapamilya Weekend.YouTube.ABS-CBN Entertainment.September 9, 2013.RetrievedSeptember 9,2023.
  31. ^"Tweet from @support (now @TwitterSupport)".Twitter. 30 May 2014.Retrieved12 July2018.
  32. ^Kastrenakes, Jacob (2014-09-03)."Twitter changes font again because everyone hated the old one".The Verge.Retrieved2022-03-13.
  33. ^"Style & Tone".New York University.
  34. ^"Visual".
  35. ^"Brand Standards"(PDF).Rowan University.
  36. ^"Communications Guide".Root: SUTD Student Government.Archived fromthe originalon 2018-03-08.Retrieved2018-03-08.
  37. ^UnderConsideration."Brand New: Follow-Up: University of Waterloo".www.underconsideration.com.Retrieved2019-03-17.
  38. ^"Netflix has its own custom font now, just like Apple, Samsung, and Google".21 March 2018.
  39. ^"Typography | Digital.NSW".
  40. ^"Telkom Indonesia Brand Guidelines".
  41. ^"Gotham Rounded: Corners Cut by Popular Demand".Typographica. 10 January 2007.Retrieved2009-01-21.
  42. ^"THE NEW GOTHAMS: 46 New Fonts from H&FJ".Hoefler & Frere-Jones. 20 January 2009.Retrieved2009-01-25.
  43. ^Hoefler, Jonathan."Can We Add Serifs to Gotham?".H&FJ News.Retrieved14 April2011.
  44. ^"What's New in Gotham".Hoefler & Co.Retrieved14 September2019.
  45. ^Soskolne, Sara(11 December 2015)."An H&Co Double Bill with Sara Soskolne".Vimeo.Retrieved14 September2019.
  46. ^Soskolne, Sara."Sara Soskolne – Gotham's newest inhabitants: adventures in pan-European typography".YouTube.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-12-19.Retrieved14 September2019.
  47. ^"Gotham".Fonts in Use.Retrieved28 September2019.

Further reading

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  • Macmillan, Neil.An A–Z of Type Designers.Yale University Press: 2006.ISBN0-300-11151-7.
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