THE COLLECTION
Jonathan Hoefler (American, born 1970), Tobias Frere-Jones (American, born 1970)
Gotham
- Graphic Design Firm:
- Hoefler & Frere-Jones
- Date:
- 2000
- Medium:
- Digital typeface
- Dimensions:
- Variable
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Hoefler & Frere-Jones
- MoMA Number:
- 1077.2010
- Copyright:
- © 2013 Hoefler & Frere-Jones
Standard Deviations
2011
Gotham is one of the most successful typefaces of the early twenty-first century. Originally inspired by the lettering on Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal sign, it was designed after Frere-Jones conducted an extensive study of New York City's vernacular lettering. A distillation of the "letters of paint, plaster, neon, glass and steel that figure so prominently in the urban landscape," as the typographers have said, Gotham has a familiar quality even though it is newly designed. The letterforms are simple and straightforward—an engineer's idea of "basic lettering."
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