---
title: "Gotham (2000) — Tobias Frere-Jones"
description: "Gotham was designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000. What it signals, where you have seen it."
url: https://atoneplace.net/font/gotham/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Gotham

**Gotham: Tobias Frere-Jones, 2000**

Sans-serif · American, optimistic, competent. The 2008 Obama campaign and everything that copied it.

Drawn from lettering Frere-Jones photographed on New York buildings — signs painted by sign painters rather than designed by typographers, which is where its particular plainness comes from. The Obama campaign's use of it in 2008 was so effective that it triggered roughly a decade of American brands adopting geometric sans-serifs, and it is now hard to see it without seeing that campaign.

## The facts

- **Designed by:** Tobias Frere-Jones
- **Released:** 2000
- **Classification:** Sans-serif
- **What it signals now:** American, optimistic, competent. The 2008 Obama campaign and everything that copied it.

## Where you have seen it

- Obama 2008
- The cornerstone of One World Trade Center
- Netflix's earlier identity
- Spotify's earlier identity

## Other typefaces from the 2000s

| Typeface | Year | Designer | What it signals |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Calibri | 2004 | Lucas de Groot | A Word document from between 2007 and 2023. |

> This page describes the typeface rather than showing it. Displaying a specimen requires a licensed font file and almost none of these may be redistributed, so the descriptions name the letters to look at instead.

## Common questions

### Who designed Gotham?

Tobias Frere-Jones, in 2000.

### What is Gotham used for?

American, optimistic, competent. The 2008 Obama campaign and everything that copied it. You will have seen it on Obama 2008, The cornerstone of One World Trade Center, Netflix's earlier identity.

## Related pages

- [Typefaces from the 2000s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/2000s/)
- [Akzidenz-Grotesk](https://atoneplace.net/font/akzidenz-grotesk/)
- [Franklin Gothic](https://atoneplace.net/font/franklin-gothic/)
- [Johnston](https://atoneplace.net/font/johnston/)
- [Futura](https://atoneplace.net/font/futura/)
- [Gill Sans](https://atoneplace.net/font/gill-sans/)
- [Helvetica](https://atoneplace.net/font/helvetica/)
- [Univers](https://atoneplace.net/font/univers/)
- [Optima](https://atoneplace.net/font/optima/)

## Sources

- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place (/about/)