Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co, the foundry behind typefaces for The New York Times and the Guggenheim

Type foundry Hoefler&Co has been acquired by Monotype, the world’s largest font library and typography branding studio. The acquisition means Monotype will now expand its type library to include more than 100 font families from Hoefler&Co, with 1,135 individual fonts representing 2,291 unique styles. “In the world of type design, there are few names as well-regarded as Hoefler&Co,” said Monotype CEO Ninan Chacko in a statement, adding that he hopes Monotype can therefore better serve the creative community who rely on the foundry, whilst also driving forward with its ambition to “elevate the value of typography in driving commerce and culture”.

Hoefler&Co, founded in 1989 by Jonathan Hoefler, is considered one of the most prestigious type foundries in the world, so much so that Hoefler was the subject of an Emmy-nominated episode of Netflix’s Abstract series, which also counted Olafur Eliasson and Ruth E. Carter among its subjects.

It is the creator of typefaces such as Gotham, Knockout, Mercury, Sentinel, Chronicle, Decimal, and Archer. Gotham, created by type designer Tobias Frere-Jones, was used for the Obama and Biden campaigns and on the cornerstone of One World Trade Centre. The foundry also provided type which was used by Tiffany & Co, Wired and The New York Times, and institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum. It is the first type foundry to ever be acknowledged by the National Design Awards at the White House and its typefaces are in the permanent collections of both the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Smithsonian Institution in New York.

The news comes over a year after Monotype also acquired Fontsmith, where Fontsmith’s 70 font families became part of Monotype’s library. Fontsmith had previously designed bespoke or modified typefaces for brands such as the BBC, British Gas, Colgate, ING and Lloyds Bank. Prior to that, in 2019 Monotype itself was acquired by private equity firm HGGC for $825 million cash.

Hoefler&Co’s designs will continue to be available through typography.com, while Monotype aims to distribute the typefaces through Monotype Fonts, where brands can browse and buy fonts to use for their visual identities. In July this year, Monotype released a variable version of Helvetica, called Helvetica Now.