The hardest working font in Manhattan
March 10, 2025
In 2007, on my first trip to New York City, I grabbed a brand-new DSLR camera and photographed all the fonts I was supposed to love. I admired American Typewriter in all of the I <3 NYC logos, watched Akzidenz Grotesk and Helvetica fighting over the subway signs, and even caught an occasional appearance of the flawlessly-named Gotham, still a year before it skyrocketed in popularity via Barack Obama’s first campaign.
But there was one font I didn’t even notice, even though it was everywhere around me.Last year in New York, I walked over 100 miles and took thousands of photos of one and one font only.
The font’s name is Gorton.
This in depth essay on the font Gorton by Marcin Wichary (author of this wonderful book on the history of keyboards) got a lot of attention when it came out a couple of weeks back, and rightly so.
I had the privilege of spending a few hours with Marcin a couple of years back when he visited Sydney. His passion for such things is palpable.
