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Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

typography.com

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Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#11

Post by thristian »

pupdroid wrote: post #8
bww wrote: post #5

Somewhat related: the saga between Hoefler and former partner Frere-Jones, who Hoefler almost certainly attempted to (and perhaps successfully) screwed over. https://www.fastcompany.com/3036423/type-stars-jonathan-hoef...

This story is almost seven years old. These guys settled their dispute and moved on. Frere Jones now has a very successful type company of his own. He's not exactly living in a van by the river

It's been decades since the Beatles broke up, but there's still people who (fairly or otherwise) nurse a grudge about it. Sure, nobody would ever claim H&FJ were "bigger than Jesus", but at least in a certain demographic they were pretty big.

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#12

Post by intellix »

Once worked on a website where they declared paying $10k/yr for a Helvetica licence was necessary and they didn't want to use a free alternative.

It's something that still perplexes me to this day...

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#13

Post by blakewatson »

I can't help but worry about Hoefler&Co's subscription service, cloud.typography. Monotype use to offer an affordable subscription called the Monotype Library Subscription. I still have it since, fortunately, they continue to provide the service to those who had signed up. But they no longer offer new sign-ups.

cloud.typography is affordable for personal/solo developer use ($99/year). The cheapest Monotype subscription plan is $7.5k/year. I worry that Monotype will eventually shut down cloud.typography, which will be a real shame if they don't provide some kind of affordable/non-enterprise alternative. These are some beautiful fonts. I would hate to see them end up behind a big paywall that only businesses can afford.

I'm really hoping they bring back some form of the Monotype Library Subscription.

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#14

Post by jonas21 »

pupdroid wrote: post #8
bww wrote: post #5

Somewhat related: the saga between Hoefler and former partner Frere-Jones, who Hoefler almost certainly attempted to (and perhaps successfully) screwed over. https://www.fastcompany.com/3036423/type-stars-jonathan-hoef...

This story is almost seven years old. These guys settled their dispute and moved on. Frere Jones now has a very successful type company of his own. He's not exactly living in a van by the river

Have they really put it behind them? Hoefler doesn't so much as acknowledge Frere-Jones in his post.

And one of Frere-Jones' type designers had this to say about the whole thing:

https://twitter.com/ninastoessinger/status/14382710868446822...

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#15

Post by tptacek »

jeremyw wrote: post #9
bww wrote: post #5

Somewhat related: the saga between Hoefler and former partner Frere-Jones, who Hoefler almost certainly attempted to (and perhaps successfully) screwed over. https://www.fastcompany.com/3036423/type-stars-jonathan-hoef...

What a sad affair. Interviews and documentaries clearly demonstrating their relationship as partners, without a hierarchy. Then one baldly asserts his ownership rights, and the other realizes the naive trust he'd put in his colleague was vapor.

Doesn't square with the chronology below:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28560980

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#16

Post by themodelplumber »

intellix wrote: post #12

Once worked on a website where they declared paying $10k/yr for a Helvetica licence was necessary and they didn't want to use a free alternative. It's something that still perplexes me to this day...

A free alternative to their on-brand font? That's crazy in a lot of ways too...

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#17

Post by ineedasername »

It's fascinating (in a good way) to me that typographers are still around. On the surface, apart from IP licenses, it doesn't seem necessary, with perhaps the exception of marketing & advertising where a unique design is desired.

Yet when you peek under the hood, typography is a lot more than just typefaces, and often goes to the heart of readability and accessibility. A graphic designer might design the text for a logo, or even a typeface, but a professional typographer is so much more, and more nuanced.

It also seems like one of perhaps only a handful of trades that has been around centuries and yet did not have all of its fundamentals, in essence, changed by the shift to digital. It seems like all the digital world did was change it's implementation methods.

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#18

Post by eps »

cantrecall18169 wrote: post #6
spoonjim wrote: post #3

So Hoefler makes out like a bandit while Frere-Jones gets totally shafted. Business as usual.

Confused. Monotype is PE-owned. Buying companies on the cheap and selling is classic PE logic. Monotype annual revenues were less than 1/10th the acquisition cost. Hoefler&Co had 5 employees and gross revenue was just over 625. Even if they sold for 10 times revenue, that's only $6M for 32 years of work. Purportedly: 1. Hoefler started the company in 1989. 2. After 10 years, in 1999, Frere-Jones joined—as an employee…

Frere-Jones designed most of the fonts that put HFJ the map and made them what they are today. Including Gotham that was used in Obama's campaign and shoot this foundry to stardom. All based on a handshake agreement between H and FJ made when they started working together and an understanding they were equal partners.

H massively screwed FJ. That's not debatable.

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#19

Post by eps »

tptacek wrote: post #15
jeremyw wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad affair. Interviews and documentaries clearly demonstrating their relationship as partners, without a hierarchy. Then one baldly asserts his ownership rights, and the other realizes the naive trust he'd put in his colleague was vapor.

Doesn't square with the chronology below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28560980

That's not an accurate chronology.

Re: Monotype acquires Hoefler&Co

#20

Post by vmception »

ineedasername wrote: post #17

It's fascinating (in a good way) to me that typographers are still around. On the surface, apart from IP licenses, it doesn't seem necessary, with perhaps the exception of marketing & advertising where a unique design is desired. Yet when you peek under the hood, typography is a lot more than just typefaces, and often goes to the heart of readability and accessibility. A graphic designer might design the text for a l…

Its honestly a wonder that we - as humans - even recognize so many variations of our own letters and symbols such that we don't really notice the nuance of typography until particulars are pointed out to us
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