Since its debut at the beginning of the 20th century, the Franklin Gothic family of typefaces has played a major role in shaping the landscape of typography everywhere. It has proven to be a versatile and timeless design for everything from hardcore punk bands to the U.S. military.

Nick Sherman's talk, as part of the Herb Lubalin Lecture Series, will cover historical information about Franklin Gothic, its predecessors, its siblings at the American Type Founders Company, typefaces it influenced, and its impact on the world of typography and culture in general. Sherman will dive deep into the specifics of the typeface designs, as well as some personal background about how it became the first typeface Sherman fell in love with, why he thinks it deserves more appreciation, and his efforts to update it for the 21st century.

Register here. Proof of Covid 19 vaccination; masks are encouraged.

Nick Sherman is a typographer, web designer, typeface designer, and typographic consultant. He runs HEX Projects, a company that makes fonts and websites, and is a founder and designer of Fonts In Use and v-fonts.com.

A graduate of the Type@Cooper Extended Program in typeface design at The Cooper Union, Sherman is also creative director and web designer/developer for Cooper's Typographics design festival. He is a member of the Future Fonts platform and has served on the board of directors for the Type Directors Club, the Adobe Typography Customer Advisory Board, and the artistic board for the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum. A List Apart has published his writing on responsive design and web typography, and he occasionally talks and teaches classes on those topics.

Previously, Nick has worked at Font Bureau, Webtype, and MyFonts, directing web design and promo­tional material for digital type­faces. He graduated with honors from the Graphic Design pro­gram at MassArt in Boston, where he has also taught under­graduate typography, typeface design, and letterpress printing.