Type Foundry Drama

Gotham is probably the one typeface that defines our millennial aesthetic. I’m sure you’ve seen it, Gotham had taken over the world by 2019.

What you may not know is that in 2014 there was a dispute worth $20 million within the firm that created Gotham: Hoefler & Frere-Jones. The drama was bad enough that Hoefler is accused of “most profound treachery” in Frere-Jones’s lawsuit. Ultimately the pair settled out of court.

Drama between type foundry partners is not new. In this article from Colossal we learn about Doves Press and their founders T.J. Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker. They founded the firm in 1900, but by 1909 they had dissolved their partnership. And in 1917, to ensure that no one would have access to Doves Press’ type—including Walker—Cobden-Sanderson dumped it all in the River Thames!

Robert Green, a type enthusiast, began searching for the missing lead type and in 2014 he miraculously found a lone ‘v’. And with the help of scuba divers, the team found 151 sorts (i.e., individual pieces of lead type) out of possible 500,000(!). Here’s a short film about the search:

It’s always fun to be reminded of the physical nature of typefaces…one reason why leading (LED-ing) is called leading, because of the lead in lead type.