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The Font of the 20th Century
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Gotham The Font of the 20th Century
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reated initially for GQ who
Showing inspiration for Gotham was the
commissioned the font designer
all-time iconic geometric Futura: a font that
in 2000, type designer, Tobias
eliminated any decorative elements and
Frere-Jones was tasked to
left its characters with the bare minimum.
create a font that was masculine, fresh, and
Engineered with basic shapes, it was a
absolutely straight forward. Frere-Jones
typeface that followed the Bauhaus ideology
wanted to preserve the New York charm
of function over form. While the font was
and designed a modern typeface that would
mainly designed with mathematical logic,
meet the needs of designers for years to
the Gotham font designer allowed some
come. With that he based the font from
characters to break the rule whenever
the Port Authority Bus Terminal signage,
necessary. While there have been other fonts
as he describes it as a found a geometric
that mix humanist and geometric styles,
character—not made by a designer, rather by
Frere-Jones came up with a new solution.
an engineer. Created with the basic idea of lettering Gotham was formed.
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Who Made Gotham?
“(Gotham) is not the type of letter that a type designer would make. It’s the kind of letter an engineer would make. It was born outside of type design, in some other world and has a very distinct flavor from that.” (Tobias Frere-Jones, from Helvetica)
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PORT Gotham’s City Roots
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Gotham finds its typographic
“The goal was to find a straight-
There’s also the more nebulous
roots in much of the 20th-century
forward voice — even stark,”
and encompassing question of
architectural signage commonly
says Frere-Jones, “and the Port
style. Gotham has been described
found in New York City. Oddly
Authority Bus Terminal lettering
by Frere-Jones as “fresh” and
enough, the geometric signage on
was a promising example of that
“masculine” (it was, after all, initially
the front door of the Port Authority
voice. I was also concerned about
intended for GQ); Michael Beirut,
— not a place many people
making a new geometric sans when
who designed Hillary Clinton’s
associate with hipness — served as
there already so many I hoped that
2016 logo, once described it to
an inspiration for Gotham’s creator,
this non-typographic source could
Newsweek as a “sleek, purposefully
type-industry titan Tobias
yield something memorable in such
not fancy, very straightforward,
Frere-Jones.
a crowded field.”
plainspoken font.”
TY BUS TERMINAL It’s difficult to untangle what goes
with the right color palette, it could
into the distinction of a typeface
easily read as an elegant, feminine
as “masculine” – is it the blockiness
typface. It’s a font that swings
or the letters, for instance, or the
both ways!
straight and authoritative lines that prompt the association? In the context of GQ, Gotham’s unfussy directness and authority could certainly be read as masculine, especially in its heavier weights – but in the lighter weights, paired
Gotham Gotham 7
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Different Weights of
Gotham
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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890
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Anatomy of Gotham
One can’t really describe this
York City, Gotham celebrates the
like Avenir, it feels more natural than
Hoefler and Frere-Jones creation
alphabet’s most basic form. These
mechanical. In fact, its lowercase
better than H&FJ themselves:
qualities made Gotham the most
shares a lot with Avenir’s, despite
“Gotham. What letters look like.”
popular release of recent years.
being much larger. But Gotham’s
The typeface is simply self-evident.
It’s used everywhere, in logos,
essence is in the caps: broad,
Each character just feels “normal”
in magazines, in the very things
sturdy “block” letters of very
and “right”. Inspired by mid-century
that inspired it: signs. Gotham’s
consistent width.
architectural lettering of New
simplicity is not mearly geometric
Wide Body
Flat Terminals and Flat Apertures
Cap Line
Meanline (x-height)
Large X-Height
Baseline
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Descender
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L T Ascender
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Little Contrast between Thicks and Thins
Sans-serif
Offset Counters
Contains Wide Apertures
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Done for a school project.
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