Hoefler&Co. (H&Co) is a digital type foundry (font design studio) in Woburn, Massachusetts (formerly New York City), founded by type designer Jonathan Hoefler. H&Co designs typefaces for clients and for retail on its website.
Incorporated as The Hoefler Type Foundry (HTF), in 2005 the company rebranded as Hoefler & Frere-Jones (H&FJ), and in 2014 as Hoefler&Co (H&Co).[1]
In September 2021 Hoefler announced the company's sale to Monotype, with Hoefler and CEO Carleen Borsella leaving the company.[2][3][4]
Work
The company specializes in designing original typefaces, often comprehensive type families that include a range of styles or characters: its Gotham typeface for GQ extends to 74 for print alone, and its Surveyor/Obsidian family past 100.[6][7][8][9] Many H&Co typefaces take inspiration from historical models, and under-examined aspects of typography and lettering, such as Soviet house numbers, metal lettering on bus terminals, engraved maps, and old petrol pumps.[10]Bloomberg Businessweek commented that Hoefler and Frere-Jones bonded over a dislike of "so-called grunge typography, which trafficked in angst and messiness. Neither Frere-Jones nor Hoefler took to that trend, preferring a cleaner style based on historic typefaces."[11]
Jonathan Hoefler was the recipient of the 2002 Prix Charles Peignot, awarded by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) for outstanding contributions to typeface design. In 2009, the company became the first typeface designers to be recognized by the National Design Awards.[12]
Conflict between Hoefler and Frere-Jones
On January 16, 2014, designer Tobias Frere-Jones, who had worked with the company since 1999, filed a lawsuit in the courts of New York state against Jonathan Hoefler.[13] The lawsuit alleged that Frere-Jones was entitled to own half of the type foundry, based on an oral agreement made in 1999. According to this alleged agreement, Frere-Jones transferred ownership of his fonts to the company for 10 USD and the company was renamed Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Frere-Jones contends that the foundry was intended to be run as an equal partnership. Hoefler filed a motion to dismiss, refuting Frere-Jones's account by attaching the written agreement signed by himself and Frere-Jones.[14] The lawsuit was settled on September 28, 2014, its terms undisclosed.[15]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Hoefler_&_Frere-Jones, and is written by contributors.
Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.