Hello First,

For years, NYU’s font was Gotham—a typeface built out of the fabric of New York City. But when Gotham was acquired by a new type foundry and its price skyrocketed for all our digital properties, NYU saw an opportunity to make a unique and cost-effective typeface that aligns with the NYU brand, has breadth and longevity, and seamlessly reflows into our existing outlets.

In partnership with Colophon, the prestigious foundry behind a number of global brands’ typefaces, we set out to create NYU Perstare—a font that is an expression of the University in all its complexity, and offers the versatility of seven weights in both proportionate and condensed styles.

For additional information and an FAQ go to nyu.edu/brand

NYU websites that currently use the University’s Gotham webfont license are strongly encouraged to change by the end of June 2024.

The design of the NYU Perstare web fonts allows web teams to change their sites without a dramatic shift in display, leverage greater display control with variable font files, and improve performance.

As the opportunity to redesign material becomes available we encourage marketing teams and designers to coordinate and use NYU Perstare. There is no required timeline for this. 

That change would be quite costly for the university from a financial and logistics standpoint.

Installing Desktop Fonts
An intro into variable fonts
How to use web fonts

Mark Courtney, AVP Creative and Brand Experience