Gotham is a celebratory nod to the attractive and unassuming lettering of the city. New York is teeming with such letters, handmade sans serifs that share a common underlying structure, an engineer’s idea of “basic lettering” that transcends both the characteristics of their materials and the mannerisms of their makers. These are the cast bronze numbers that give office doorways their authority and the markings on cornerstones whose neutral and equable style defies the passage of time. They’re the matter-of-fact neon signs that emblazon liquor stores and pharmacies, and the names of proprietors plainly painted on delivery trucks. These letters are straightforward and non-negotiable yet possess great personality (and often are expertly made). And although designers have lived with them for more than half a century, they remarkably went unrevived until 2000, when we introduced Gotham.

Every year, Pentagram chooses twelve beloved typefaces for its iconic Pentagram Calendar. Traditionally, the calendar features work by typographers past and present, from timeless standards like Garamond and Bodoni to modern classics such as Knockout and Gotham. In 2006, Pentagram broke with tradition and selected twelve typefaces from the same designer: H&Co, who created fifteen original fonts for the calendar and named the beloved collection, “Numbers.” 

Surveyor’s style of lettering garnered inspiration from the early nineteenth century—the material properties of copperplate engraving and cartographic needs. A letter with compact proportions, delicate serifs, and a sinewy italic designed to follow rivers and coastlines, map lettering invited endless variation to help distinguish different kinds of data. A map that used italics for rivers and canals might use its roman for churches and villages, small capitals for bays and harbors, and a grand, sweeping arc of italic swash capitals for the names of the oceans. Inch for inch, few things have ever matched engraved maps for the density of their information, the range of their typographic vocabulary, or their pure visual delight.