Since it’s release in 2002, Gotham has, almost single-handedly, brought about a revival in grotesque typefaces. Also, letterforms were more geometric in design, with circular letters such as O, G and D being perfect or near perfect circles. This allowed for tighter linespacing in headlines. The fonts did away with variable line thickness and had shorter ascenders and descenders, making for an x-height that was more similar to the full font height. Originally, grotesque fonts were intended primarily for headline use. Grotesque is now considered to be synonymous with sans-serif, however this loses some of the nuance in the term. Sample of Caslon’s letterbook, showing a sans-serif “Grotesque” font Caslon’s typeface was not well received and was described as “grotesque” or “gothic”-comments influenced by a style of architecture experiencing a revival at the time. Grotesque (or gothic) typefaces were developed in the early nineteenth century following the introduction of William Caslon’s Egyptian type. It was the harbinger of the grotesque era. It wasn’t just an alternative to Century Gothic. How many videos do you see about the release of a font? And 2 years before YouTube? You can see a segment of that video here: For starters, the release of the font came with a video announcing it. But even then, I distinctly remember seeing the release of the font as something important. I had just recently entered the world of graphic design and only in an auxiliary role-more a sideline observer rather than an actual player. And I share this sentiment with many of my design colleagues. To this day, Gotham holds a special place in my heart as a graphic designer. The intent of the design was to create a font which was both fresh and modern, but also felt familiar and credible. Originally commissioned by GQ magazine, the Gotham font was designed in 2000 by type designer Tobias Frere-Jones, inspired by the letterforms of architectural signage throughout New York City. In other words, the movie Matrix existed in a world where the Gotham font did not. It may come as a surprise to many modern designers that the ubiquitous font Gotham was released in 2002.
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