Tobias Frere-Jones Mini Biography

TOBIAS BREAKS THINGS ON PURPOSE.

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Tobias Frere-Jones breaks things deliberately. To be clear, he finds the best way to approach a problem is to studiously break it down because this gives him a full understanding of the challenge.

This is, in part, the drive behind his facination with typography — ­Frere-Jones sees it as a solution.

Frere-Jones believes typography gives us an honest and dependable answer to the new problems society faces every day. Afterall, the way we communicate typically uses letterforms and where there are letterforms, there are opportunities to influence a reader.

99U (left) Frere-Jones gives a presentation about his experiences with typography.

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Because of this, every day, we have a series of opportunities to shape a reader’s world. For at least the time the reader is immersed in the story, they are absorbing so many other cues than what is actually written, but only from what is written on the page. This is where Frere-Jones comes in. He wants to make sure the feelings we get from a typeface matches the intention of the GOTHAM (left)

content.

Gothem combines round Os with square and sturdy capitals for a geometric sans that conveys strength, trust, and honesty. Obama’s designers used Gotham in the 2008 and 2012 campaigns. Designed

by Shepard Fairey

Take for example his typeface Gotham, which was used in Obama’s 2008 campaign and has taken to being called “Obama’s font” (although, it should be noted, that after being called out for his use of a foreign typeface, Trump’s designers have switched to Gotham). Michael Bierut

commented on Obama’s success with Gotham, saying “Gotham is a sleek, purposefully not fancy, very straightforward, plainspoken font, but done with a great deal of elegance and taste – and drawn from very American sources.”

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Obama’s 2012 campaign posed a new problem that only FrereJones (and other typographers) would see as fun: the campaign wanted to portray evolution but maintain the core values that are gotham - confidence and trustworthyness - and they wanted a serif’d Gotham. Frere-Jones took the problem apart and delivered on his tweeted promise: “Gotham with serifs? Ok, but only because you asked, & you’re the President of The United States.”

Gotham was originally commissioned by GQ Magazine in 2000, to communicate a feeling of hardworking, no-nonsense friendlyness.

Frere-Jones wanted the letters to have their freedom and break the grid wherever necessary. He did this to exhibit the “mathematical reasoning of a draftsman”, giving the letterforms an affability usually not associated with geometric sans.

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GOTHAM TYPEFACE ANATOMY CLASSIFICATION Geometric Sans

WEIGHTS 60

RELEASE YEAR 2000

Flat apex Rectangular Letterforms

Rounded glyphs Nearly circular

Large x-height

Horizontal Crossbars

Missing spur

Minimal contrast Flat terminals

Flat apexes

No stress

Angled serif

Slight thinning At intersections Flat terminals

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EDUCATION

Tobias Frere-Jones was born in 1970 and comes from a family of modest fame. His brother Sasha Frere-Jones is a well-known pop music critic for the New Yorker, and his grandfather, Alexander Stuart Frere-Reeve, chaired the committee board for a popular British publishing house, William Heinemann Ltd. His parents worked as an advertising copywriter and a print buyer and thusly he was surrounded by letterform and the art of typesetting from a very young age.

TOBIAS, 1987 (right)

Growing up in Brooklyn, his house was

Frere-Jones was one

crammed with books. Frere-Jones eventually

of four winners in the Alphabet Design Contest, a nationwide competition sponsored by the Type Shop in New York, when he was sixteen. He drew the first typeface that came to mind. As a result, at seventeen, he was featured in the U&Ic August 1987 issue.

found his way naturally in to typography, led by his love for architecture and painting. In typography, he found a happy middleground.

As a young adult, Frere-Jones would pass time strolling the streets, challenging himself to identify the typefaces on the signs he passed (this was, of course, before cell phones).

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I was thrown out of French class for a day because I was in the back of the room drawing a lowercase K. It was then that I knew, I should go to art school.

FRERE-JONES

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Frere-Jones went on to attended Brooklyn’s Saint Ann’s School, a very prestigious school before receiving a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design. Frere-Jones loved to paint, which he was able to explore in his degree, and was eventually faced with a dilemma: whether to pursue painting or his joy of writing. Luckily for the world, he discovered the intersection between being a writer and a painter: typeface design, just in time.

Post graduation with the encouragment of Matthew Carter, a famous British typographer, Frere-Jones went to work for Font Bureau, Inc. Font Bureau is a typeface foundry founded in 1989 by Roger Black and David Berlow. Prior to Font Bureau, Black was an established publications designer and consultant. Berlow is a noted type designer. Font Bureau has established itself as one of the leading foundries for typeface design. He stayed with Font Bureau for seven years, during which time he created a few very notable typefaces. Some of those typefaces are still considered Font Bureau’s greatest work including Interstate, Poynter Oldstyle, and Gothic.

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Interstate, a typeface based loosely on the US highway signs was very successful in the 1990’s and can be seen in the “University” of Duke University 4, on Sesame Street, and Southwest Airline’s recently updated signage. 5 Abba used Gothic on their most recent cd released, and it was paired with Copperplate and Bernhard Mod for the Self-Conscious Cowboy Medicine released by Jesse Marsolais in 2015.

In an article written by David Berlow, co-founder of The Font Bureau, Inc, Interstate “began when the specifications for highway signage fell into Tobias’ hands. For some time he pored over it and we discussed the differences between signage and printage, before he began slowly designing a new family. There were plenty of typographic diversions on the way, leading to the extensive, multifaceted series Interstate is today.”

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INTERSTATE TYPEFACE

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In 1999, Frere-Jones was approached by his friend Jonathan Hoefler with a proposition he could not ignore: fifty-fifty partnership of Hoefler’s already-established type foundry. Frere-Jones decided to join Hoefler, and they renamed the type foundry Hoefler & Frere-Jones Typography.

“Hoefler and Frere-Jones, The Beatles Of The Type World...”

CO.DESIGN

Together, they established an impressive portfolio of clients, from The New York Times to Harper’s Bazaar, to Wired and Apple. They developed the typeface branding for Sony, Kodak, and IBM. They would eventually go on to implement Gotham as Obama’s official campaign typeface, although it had been developed by Frere-Jones in 2000.

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Hoefler&Jone, Co. The breakup between these long-time friends and dynamic typographic duo was watched closely by the design world.

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Unfortunately in January of 2014 after years of mounting tension, Frere-Jones filed a scathing lawsuit against his business partner, Jonathan Hoefler. His lawsuit claimed that he had been cheated out of their verbal agreement: he was not getting his half of the Hoefler & Frere-Jones business. Frere-Jones stated in his lawsuit that he had experienced “the most profound treachery and sustained exploitation of friendship, trust, and confidence” because Hoefler had reneged on a deal they had made 15 years prior to split the company fifty-fifty.

“...Are Breaking Up.” CO.DESIGN

The only problem was that the deal had been made in good trust, over drinks and dinner at Manhattan’s famous Gotham Bar & Grill.

Frere-Jones trusted Hoefler to carry through the deal, but Hoefler had no incentive to do so; the design world saw this break up as the typographical split of the Beatles.

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We see type as the clothes that words wear. You have more than one outfit in your closet, because you don’t wear the same thing to the office that you wear to the beach.

FRERE-JONES

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AWARDS

Since then, Frere-Jones has kept himself very busy. His work in the years that followed have earned him quite a few awards and notorieties including the Gerrit Noordzij Award for which he was the first American recipient. This award, presented by the Royal Academy of the Hauge, honored Frere-Jones for the special contributions he has made to the typographical world through his deeply analytical type design and type education.

In 2013, Frere-Jones recieved a AIGA Medal in recognition, again, for his exceptional and educational achievements in the field of type design. His typographical work has been featured in art galleries across the world, including a permanent exhibit at the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Magazines the likes of How, ID, Print, Eye, and Graphics Inc. have featured studies of his work. He works with Typekit as a founding partner, and continues to regularly answer for the dry, old question: “why do we need more typefaces?”

Frere-Jones’ ever present curiosity insists that he consistently be involved in some sort of typographical problem-solving. One of his more recent commissioned typefaces, Retina, faced the age-old newspaper struggle of fitting more words into narrow columns. The 17

Wall Street Journal approached Frere-Jones with the request and really wanted to improve upon what already existed in their current typeface. They wanted to maintain the clarity and readability while adapting to the new layout and being readable at 5.5px.

Since the typeface would be printed on newsprint, a notoriously porous paper, it would also need to compensate for spread. To ensure the letters were not distorted, Frere-Jones studied the spread and designed ink wells into the letterform to compensate.

Instead of resisting, he adapted. His proudest moment with Retina was when a retired stockbroker reading the new Wall Street Journal said to Frere-Jones, “I don’t know what you did, but I don’t need my glasses anymore.” Ultimately, Frere-Jones enabled The Wall Street Journal to fit 11% more text on the page... which they then sold as advertisment space.

Frere-Jones spends his time post-breakup pursuing his love of type design, and has dedicated a good part of the past years to lecturing around the world, at schools like the Rhode Island School of design, Yale School of Art, The Royal College of Art in an effort to build up a new generation of analytical typographers. In his short twenty five 18

years of type exploration, Tobias Frere-Jones has designed, digitized, or collaborated on nearly seven hundred typefaces. He has expanded the families of preexisting typefaces and continues to push the typographical world into new, uncomfortable, but exciting worlds.

He was once asked if the world really needs so many typefaces, to which he responded,

“The day we stop needing new type will be the same day that we stop needing new stories and new songs.�

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I suppose there’s a hidden personal agenda in the design, to preserve those pieces of New York that could be wiped out before they’re appreciated.

FRERE-JONES on the creation of Gotham

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POYNTER OLDSTYLE DISPLAY 1997

In the 1670’s, Chrisopher Plantin was the largest publisher of his day.

Hendrik van den Keere cut for him an astounding series of romans.

As Stanley Morison once observed, such types adopted features of Flemish blackletter to strengthen elegant French romans. Large on the body, astrong in color, economical in fit, widely distributed, they established effective standards for all that followed. In a quest for readable and functional fonts optimized for today’s newspapers, the Poynter research institute commissioned a comprehensive type series comprised of serif and sans serif fonts for text and display, designed

by Tobias Frere-Jones. As part of this series, Poynter Old Style Display draws on those 17th-century romans of Hendrik van den Keere.

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BENTON MODERN

1993

Benton Modern was originally undertaken by Tobias Frere-Jones to improve text at The Boston Globe. Widening the text face for the Destroit Free Press, he returned Century’s proportions to Morris Fuller Benton’s turn-of-the-century ATF Century Expanded, successfully reviving the great news text type. The italic, based on Century School book Italic, was designed by Richard Lipton and Christian Swartz, who also added the bold to expand the potential for display use.

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INTERSTATE

1993

Tobias Frere-Jones is for sure best known for being the designer of the typeface, Interstate, which happens to be a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface with Industrial roots. It was licensed by the Font Bureau. It was created in the year 1993 and 1994. It is very basic, and not fancy.

It has squared edges that are not rounded, and no serifs. It has a thick weight, that is consistent throughout. It is not slanted, just very simple. There is also really wide spacing. The interstate typeface is closely related to the FHWA Series fonts, a signage alphabet that was drawn for the United States Federal Highway Administration in 1949. The interstate font was made specially for signage, yet it also has refinements that make it okay to use for text setting in print and on-screen.

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HIGHTOWER

1994

In 1994, Tobias Frere-Jones completed Hightower for the Journal of the American Insutitute of Graphic Arts. For as long as he had drawn letters, he had wrestled with the problems posed by any moderm rendition of the 15th-century Venetian roman. Dissatisfied with others’ attempts to bring Nicholas Jenson’s 1470 roman up to date, Frere-Jones prepared his version of this calligraphic roman, with his own personal italic.

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GRIFFITH GOTHIC 1997

Of all his work, Chauncey Griffith claimed one type, Bell Gothic, as his own design. Griffith Gothic is a revival of the 1937 Mergenthaler Linotype original, redrawn as the house sans for Fast Company. Tobias Frere-Jones drew a six-weight series from light and bold, removing linecaster adjustments and retaining the pre-emptive thinning of joints as a salient feature. Italics and condensed complete this ultimately legible sans series.

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GRAND CENTRAL

1998

In 1998, Tobias Frere-Jones designed Grand Central for 212 Associates from late-twenties capitals hand-printed on the walls of Grand Central Station. The design is distinguished Beaux Arts descendant of the great French Oldstyle originated by Louis PErrin in Lyon in 1846, known across Europe as Elzevir and in the United States as De Vinne. LEttering from different areas was combined for Light; Bold was designed for more distant signs.

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CITADEL

1995

Weak ovals replace powerful circular forms in the condensed form of most geometric slab-serifs. In Citael, Tobias Frere-Jones follows a stronger alternative, substituting straight strokes for the curved sides of round characters. Flat horizontal curves play against the variety of serifs in counterpoint to the repeating rhythm of vertials. The inline stripe adds to the rhythm of a typeface that offers a powerful and stylish geometric.

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EPITAPH

1993

Drawn at the close of the nineteenth century at the Boston branch of American Type founders, Epitaph was modeled on a graceful Art Nouveau letterform that was bringing a new vitality to gravestone inscriptions at the time. The energy and life of the Vienna Sucession alphabet drew the attention of Tobias Frere-Jones, who digitized the original set of titling capitals and added alternate characters for its Font Bureau release.

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1997 The Miller family was designed by Matthew Carter and developed by Carter with the assistance of the Font Bureau’s Tobias Frere-Jones and Cyrus Highsmith, and the encouragement of James Mosley, a librarian at St Bride Library. Miller is a “Scotch Roman”—a style which originated in types cut by Richard Austin at the Scottish type foundries of Alexander Wilson and William Miller in the period of 1810–1820. Although Miller remains faithful to the Scotch Roman style (for example, in having both roman and italic small caps), it is not based on any single historical example.

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ALEX TROCHUT has acquired many titles throughout his career: illustrator, graphic designer, grammy nominee. yes, you read that right. the artist has created cover art for the likes of katy perry and the rolling stones, earning a grammy nomination for best recording package in the process. his unique artwork and beautiful illustrations make him one of our picks for the class of 2018. alex was presented as one of the first inductees at our party with uniqlo to celebrate the class and the uniqlo u spring/summer 2018 collection. read on as alex opens up about success, creativity, and his goals for the future.

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please could you tell us about your background?

i studied graphic design in elisava, barcelona. my first jobs were in berlin, at moniteurs and xplicit. then i went back to barcelona where i worked at toormix and vasava. since 2007 i’ve been freelancing and mostly focusing on illustration and lettering. a year ago i switched barcelona for new york. what’s been the biggest influence on your work?

the people closest to me. the great masters of american graphic design such as herb lubalin, saul bass, milton glaser and paul rand. mediterranean artists like pablo picasso, joan miró and salvador dalí. wizards of geometry like victor vasarely, carlos cruz-diez, or m. c. escher. and pop artists and like roy lichtenstein, andy warhol, jeff koons, kaws. i also like very much the work of illustrators rick griffin and jim phillips. how would you describe your work to someone who hasn’t seen it before?

my work is expressive. it’s often highly detailed but the overall image is clean. i have a tendency to mix geometric and fluid forms. ambiguity and duality are also recurrent themes in my concepts as are letters, numbers and symbols.

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how did you come to develop the complex style of typography demonstrated in a lot of your work?

for me it’s very important to try do same things in terms of images but in different ways or styles, this is sometimes the goal and concept itself. often the most challenging part of the process is to figure out the methodology. i try to get lost, discover happy accidents and break my routines. normally it’s hard to find a client that likes to experiment and take the risks that this process implies, so usually i collect my ‘accidents’ and save them for the right occasion. how would you describe the evolution in your work?

the most important goal for me when i started to design was to make an impact, through direct, bold images. highlighting an that a good deal of time had been spent creating them. i worked a lot on details to make a very intricate compositions. now i’m looking to achieve a less artificial result, for something more spontaneous in it’s aesthetic but still with a direct, strong impact. if we think of images as flavors, before i was cooking with sweeter ingredients, but now i’m trying to achieve a bitter taste – a flavor that you develop a craving for.

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I would not like to be Christopher Wool. Even spending an evening with him might be more than I could take. Wandering through his mind at the current retrospective at New York’s Guggenheim Museum is like getting lost in a forest of anxiety. There’s not a flicker of joy in the show, just a tundra of bleak splodges, obsessive patterns, acid incantations, and anguished erasures. “I define myself in my work by reducing the “Like music [making art] things I don’t want,” Wool is an emotional experience. once said. “It seems imposIt’s a visual language and sible to know when to say it’s almost impossible ‘yes’ but I know what I can to put words to it.” say ‘no’ to.”

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“No” is a word he uses prof ligately, denying himself colour, figure, and solace. At times – as when he obscures an earlier work with whorls from a spray can – he seems to be shaking his head at the viewer too. But despite his negativity, the manically exuberant art market adores him. You might think that his work would resonate mostly within a small circle of the terminally depressed, yet it commands stratospheric prices.

One of Wool’s aff lictions, it seems, is doubt that the whole enterprise of making art is actually worthwhile. You can sense his instinctive need to express himself through paint,

If you’re not fearless about changes, then you won’t progress.”

but he keeps tamping it down, using patterns to neutralise gestures, then bleaching out even those. At the heart of his work is a vibrating tension between passion and renunciation. You can see it in one of his more recent untitled works from 2012. A dark cloud bursts out from the centre, f linging droplets towards the edges of the frame, as if Wool had sloshed paint, Jackson Pollock-like, on to a canvas laid out on the f loor. Only it’s not a painting at all, but a silkscreen, the product of mechanical reproduction. Rationalism asserts itself in the form of axes that divide the rectangle into quadrants and slice the spreading stain into two parts, one crimson, the other black, that don’t quite line up. The piece has an almost forensic quality; it could be the coldly observed evidence of some mysterious act of violence, or the sorrow of a boring, repetitive nine-to-five.

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