My computer includes about 100 English-language fonts, many of them families encompassing multiple weights-Baskerville in bold, bold italic, italic, regular, semibold, and semibold italic, for instance-and all available instantly. Nowadays, even nonprofessionals take an abundance of typefaces for granted. “I’m not sure in 1982 I could have come up with 79 different text fonts,” he says. This profusion of typefaces would have been inconceivable when Bierut, 50, was starting out as a graphic designer. Each of the 79 essays is set in a different typeface, ranging in age from Bembo, designed in 1495, to Flama, created in 2006. Interview: What's in a Font? Virginia Postrel talks with Gary Hustwit-director of Helvetica-about filmmaking, creativity, and the expressive implications of one of the world's most popular typefaces. Most outsiders, and even former employees, assumed that the two were, in fact, 50-50 partners.Also see: Video: Fine Print Graphic designer Michael Bierut comments on the development and uses of typography. The perceived closeness of the partnership is why the typography world was so surprised by the conflict. Yet all their font designs, including four that were among 23 added to the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, shared the Hoefler & Frere-Jones name. At one point the company had 18 employees, the lawsuit says. Frere-Jones was the creative force in creating the fonts, including Gotham, Whitney and Mercury, which fueled the company’s growth. Frere-Jones into his company, the Hoefler Type Foundry.īy all accounts, however, Mr. Apple included the Hoefler font on its computers in 1991. Hoefler, however, who was the first to achieve fame in the world of typography - creating a font, Hoefler Text, when he was barely 20. Hoefler as “a type designer and a businessman.” (The lawsuit documents were set in the pedestrian Arial typeface, which was not created by Hoefler & Frere-Jones.) Hoefler of “most profound treachery,” and while it describes the many honors accumulated by Mr. The news of the schism spread quickly in the tight-knit community of designers, who are more accustomed to arguing over serifs and spacing than partnerships and profits.Īll the changes have created instability and excitement in the field, said Stephen Coles, who writes about typefaces and typography at. Hoefler, who runs the business, told him. Frere-Jones, the design chief at Hoefler & Frere-Jones, brought up the subject. Most recently, in July, according to the lawsuit, Mr. Each time he asked to put in writing the terms of the partnership - valued at $40 million, according to the lawsuit - he was told the timing was wrong. Hoefler of luring him to the company in 1999 with the false promise that they would be 50-50 partners. Frere-Jones, in a lawsuit filed late Thursday, accuses Mr. That business partnership is now in shambles - and it is unclear whether anyone can pick up the letters and put them back together again. A signature typeface, Gotham, originally created for GQ Magazine, gave Barack Obama’s “hope” and “change” presidential campaign its distinctive look. Their renowned studio has created fonts for Fortune 500 companies and reaped numerous design honors. Tobias Frere-Jones and Jonathan Hoefler are the closest thing to superstars in the arcane world of typography.