Somewhat related: the saga between Hoefler and former partner Frere-Jones, who Hoefler almost certainly attempted to (and perhaps successfully) screwed over.
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.
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
There's some pretty spicy and entertaining comments in the various briefs and discussions. My own overall impression is that it looks extremely bad for Hoefler, and he probably settled because his best defense, after all of the emails and documents produced, was "I totally did defraud Frere-Jones, but the statute of limitations protects me", which is... a bad look and a bad reason to win.
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.
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
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.
The Monotype Library Subscription was awesome! I've been stubbornly holding onto my subscription but I'm starting to worry I might have to cancel it since finances are a bit tight for me at the moment. What a shame they stopped offering it. My only complaint was that the anti-piracy functionality in the SkyFonts program meant I couldn't get the fonts to work with TeX.
Wow, that is the end of an era. In some ways it is sad to see a successful independent foundry get absorbed, but on the other hand, it sounds like he is ready for a break, and this sounds like a good outcome for those involved.
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. No way someone puts in 10 years and makes someone else 50/50 unless they put up capital.
3. After 13 years, in 2002, Hoefler's wife became CEO. Likely that Hoefler and her were the largest shareholders.
4. After 16 years, in 2005, rebranded to include Frere-Jones. Pretty generous!
5. After 9 years rebranded and 15 years working together, in 2014, Frere-Jones sues Hoefler for $20M, claiming the fonts were worth $3M each. They settle after nine months. Frere-Jones immediately starts his own company.
6. After 32 years, in 2021, Hoefler sells and decides he wants to do something different.
How can you say he made out like a bandit? I would understand saying that if he started the company with Frere-Jones, sold for hundreds of millions in four years, and managed to keep all of it for himself.
bww|4 years ago
https://www.fastcompany.com/3036423/type-stars-jonathan-hoef...
jeremyw|4 years ago
pupdroid|4 years ago
unknown|4 years ago
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gwern|4 years ago
There's some pretty spicy and entertaining comments in the various briefs and discussions. My own overall impression is that it looks extremely bad for Hoefler, and he probably settled because his best defense, after all of the emails and documents produced, was "I totally did defraud Frere-Jones, but the statute of limitations protects me", which is... a bad look and a bad reason to win.
jrochkind1|4 years ago
ineedasername|4 years ago
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.
vmception|4 years ago
intellix|4 years ago
It's something that still perplexes me to this day...
themodelplumber|4 years ago
RicoElectrico|4 years ago
At the same time regular people in the industry get screwed over and are paid peanuts.
blakewatson|4 years ago
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.
vitejose|4 years ago
stuart78|4 years ago
spoonjim|4 years ago
cantrecall18169|4 years ago
Purportedly: 1. Hoefler started the company in 1989. 2. After 10 years, in 1999, Frere-Jones joined—as an employee. No way someone puts in 10 years and makes someone else 50/50 unless they put up capital. 3. After 13 years, in 2002, Hoefler's wife became CEO. Likely that Hoefler and her were the largest shareholders. 4. After 16 years, in 2005, rebranded to include Frere-Jones. Pretty generous! 5. After 9 years rebranded and 15 years working together, in 2014, Frere-Jones sues Hoefler for $20M, claiming the fonts were worth $3M each. They settle after nine months. Frere-Jones immediately starts his own company. 6. After 32 years, in 2021, Hoefler sells and decides he wants to do something different.
How can you say he made out like a bandit? I would understand saying that if he started the company with Frere-Jones, sold for hundreds of millions in four years, and managed to keep all of it for himself.
jerbearito|4 years ago
unknown|4 years ago
[deleted]
parenthesis|4 years ago