Standard Deviations (exhibition)

Standard Deviations was the name of a Museum of Modern Art exhibition that was notable for showcasing the 23 digital typefaces that MoMA acquired in January 2011 for its Architecture and Design Collection. The exhibition was open from March 2, 2011 through January 30, 2012. The full title of the exhibition was Standard Deviations: Types and Families in Contemporary Design, though the title was originally announced as Standard Deviations: Prototypes, Archetypes, and Families in Contemporary Design. The exhibition was organized by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Kate Carmody, curatorial assistant.

While the exhibition showed works of design other than typefaces, the selection and acquisition of typefaces was significant in the history of typographic design. Aside from a set of 36-point Helvetica Bold lead type designed by Max Miedinger in 1956, these were the first typefaces acquired by MoMA.

Twenty-three typefaces

Typeface	Year	Designer	Foundry	Source
Bell Centennial	1976–1978	Matthew Carter	Mergenthaler Linotype Company	[2]
Big Caslon	1994	Matthew Carter	Carter & Cone	[3]
Dead History	1990	P. Scott Makela, Zuzana Licko	Emigre	[4]
FF Beowolf	1990	Erik van Blokland, Just van Rossum	FontShop	[5]
FF Blur	1992	Neville Brody	FontShop	[6]
FF DIN	1995	Albert-Jan Pool	FontShop	[7]
FF Meta	1984–1991	Erik Spiekermann	FontShop	[8]
Gotham	2000	Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones	Hoefler Type Foundry	[9]
HTF Didot	1991	Jonathan Hoefler	Hoefler Type Foundry	[10]
Interstate	1993–1995	Tobias Frere-Jones	Font Bureau	[11]
ITC Galliard	1978	Matthew Carter	International Typeface Corporation	[12]
Keedy Sans	1991	Jeffery Keedy	Emigre	[13]
Mantinia	1993	Matthew Carter	Carter & Cone	[14]
Mason	1992	Jonathan Barnbrook	Emigre	[15]
Mercury	1996	Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones	Hoefler & Frere-Jones	[16]
Miller	1997	Matthew Carter	Font Bureau	[17]
New Alphabet	1967	Wim Crouwel	—	[18]
Oakland	1985	Zuzana Licko	Emigre	[19]
OCR-A	1966	American Type Founders	American Type Founders	[20]
Retina	1999	Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones	Hoefler Type Foundry	[21]
Template Gothic	1990	Barry Deck	Emigre	[22]
Verdana	1995	Matthew Carter	Microsoft	[23]
Walker	1995	Matthew Carter	Walker Art Center	[24]

The selection of typefaces met with some criticism. On Design Observer, Paul Shaw expressed "puzzlement" over the selection and questioned the omission of important foundries and typefaces in the digital era. While the timeframe of the selections represents a time of diversification in type design, all but two are associated with either Matthew Carter, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Emigre or FontShop.