New York’s Whitney Museum asked Tobias Frere-Jones

Tobias Frere-Jones

Tobias Frere-Jones is a prolific type designer who works in New York City with fellow type designer Jonathan Hoefler at Hoefler & Frere-Jones, a type foundry in lower Manhattan...

 to develop an institutional typeface

Typeface

In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....

. Frere-Jones subsequently created the Whitney font. Two key requirements Tobias Frere-Jones was to meet with the deliverables were flexibility for editorial requirements, and a design consistency with the Whitney Museum's existing public signage.

Typographical Context

Whitney bridges the divide between editorial mainstays such as News Gothic

News Gothic

News Gothic is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton, and released by the American Type Founders in 1908. The typeface was originally drawn in two lighter weights, a medium text weight using the title News Gothic, and a closely related light weight marketed under the name...

 (1908) which is an American “gothic” and signage application standards such as Frutiger

Frutiger

Frutiger is a series of typefaces named after its designer, Adrian Frutiger. Initially available as a sans serif, it was later expanded to include ornamental and serif typefaces.-Distinctive characteristics:Characteristics of this typeface are:...

 (1975), a European "humanist" typeface. This is achieved via "Its compact forms and broad x-height use space efficiently, and its ample counters and open shapes make it clear under any circumstances."

Use

• Whitney Museum
• Bridgewater Associates
  Bridgewater Associates
  Bridgewater Associates is an American investment management firm founded by Ray Dalio in 1975 and is reported to be the world's largest hedge fund company with $122 billion in assets under management. The company has 270 clients including pension funds, endowments, foundations, foreign governments...
  
   (one of the largest Hedge Fund
  Hedge fund
  A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...
  
  s in the world)
• Kodak
• Boston University
  Boston University
  Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
  
  
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• New Zealand Transport Agency Publications and advertising
• NYU Langone Medical Center
  NYU Langone Medical Center
  NYU Langone Medical Center is an academic medical center in New York City affiliated with New York University. It was named to the Honor Roll of U.S. News "Best Hospitals" in the nation for 2009-2010. The Medical Center comprises NYU School of Medicine and three hospitals: Tisch Hospital, the Rusk...
  
   Stationery Guidelines
• Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education (CPCFSE) – Be Food Safe Campaign
• American Nerd
  American Nerd
  American Nerd: The Story of My People is a book by Benjamin Nugent. The book discusses the history and origin of the term "nerd", as well as what the term means in today's age...
  
  is a book by Benjamin Nugent
  Benjamin Nugent
  Benjamin Nugent is an American writer, best known for the book American Nerd: The Story of My People.-Biography:Nugent grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. He was the original keyboardist for The Cloud Room, an indie rock band based in Brooklyn, New York...
  
   whose book cover uses Whitney
• Delta Air Lines
  Delta Air Lines
  Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
  
   (used in logo and all branding)
• De Lijn
  De Lijn
  Vlaamse Vervoersmaatschappij De Lijn , usually known as simply De Lijn , is a company run by the Flemish government in Belgium to provide public transportation, similar to the way in which Belgian railroads or the postal system is run. It runs about 3650 buses and 359 trams...
  
  

External links

• Whitney Font in the Hoefler & Frere-Jones catalog