The gentrification font: how a sleek typeface became a neighborhood omen

Maybe you recognize it from the Shake Shack nameplate, text in the New Yorker magazine, or maybe you’ve seen it flash across the screen during the title sequence for the cult HBO show Girls.

Even if you think you’ve never seen it before, if you step outside, you might very well see this typeface going up on homes in your neighborhood. And it could be a sign that rents are going up.

Neutraface – a typeface known for its clean lines and its legibility from a distance – has been dubbed the unofficial font of gentrification, according to eagle-eyed Twitter and Instagram users who have spotted the typeface (and others like it) on buildings around the country.

Vice writer Bettina Makalintal documented the rise of Neutraface and similar fonts in 2020, after a tweet showing an image of black numbers in the style went viral. “Times New Craft Brewery,” one user quipped. Since then sightings have not abated, and interpretations of the style have proliferated.

The Neutraface font family, which was released in 2002 by House Industries, a US type foundry, seems to be a favorite of designers and developers, particularly when it comes to house numbers.

For many of these professionals and tastemakers, the minimalism of Neutraface – with its thin, pointy, attention-grabbing lines – adds whimsy and elegance to a building. At the same time, as Neutraface house numbers have become too commonplace to ignore, some now associate them (along with gray paint jobs) with neighborhoods overtaken by construction and renovations.

That association also lends itself to other dystopian connections: cheap fixer-upper jobs done on the fly, rent hikes and people being displaced from their longtime homes. Whatever the meanings people make of these house numbers, Neutraface now seems both indivisible from – and an indicator of – the constant changes of our nation’s screwed-up housing market.

Neutraface was inspired by Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra, famous for his modernist designs – and in his lifetime, Neutra himself emphasized affordability as well as beauty in his buildings. That historical context makes the typeface’s associations with gentrification feel jarring. “Typefaces convey nonverbal information in a similar way to clothes, body language or facial expression,” Sarah Hyndman, author of Why Fonts Matter, said over email recently. “Just like noticing when somebody is dressed inappropriately or their words do not match their body language – if you use a mismatching font you may find your credibility is called into question.”

For house numbers, this style resonates because it’s “kind of modern … kind of clean”, said Angela Riechers, a typography expert and the program director of graphic design at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. “They’re very much a statement, not just a little ID on the outside of the house for the postman to find.”

It must be noted that not every example of “gentrification font” is actually Neutraface. Makalintal reported in Vice that many are some other modern-looking sans serif font, which are those missing little ticks at the end of the line strokes. Sans serif fonts are thought to be easier to read on screens than serif fonts like Times New Roman. These sleeker typefaces, like Arial and Helvetica, are closely related to modernity and the internet. Morrone compared the popularity of Neutraface to the cultural hold that another typeface, Gotham, had in the 2010s: it was the official font of the Obama campaign.

Neutraface boasts thin lines and has an open, almost airy feel. With certain letters, like the capitals A and N, the lines meet and form sharp peaks. One of the pros of using Neutraface on buildings is that it remains legible even from a distance.

But it’s not just about ease of reading. Somewhere along the way, those navigating the rental market, or simply commenting on it, began to read the font as something of a class statement. Perhaps that’s because the typeface fits neatly within trends like stealth wealth and quiet luxury, or the general idea that understated design is a hallmark of cultural restraint, taste and money.

According to Francis Morrone, an architectural historian who teaches classes at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, Neutraface is “very elegant, and if people associate that with gentrification, maybe they’re right”.

He thinks Neutraface evokes both the worlds of design and corporate branding. “There’s also something about all of this which seems kind of like the Apple aesthetic,” he said, referring to the design of the tech company’s products. “And if there’s anything that says ‘gentrification’, it’s an Apple product.”

Still, the pervasiveness of these house numbers may or may not actually indicate that gentrification – or perhaps more specifically, displacement – is happening in a specific block or building. It could simply be “a sign that there’s been a change in the landlord”, says Imani Henry, lead organizer for Equality for Flatbush, a grassroots organization based in Brooklyn that fights for affordable housing.

But it may also signal that developers and owners are looking to court renters who can afford to pay a higher price for living there. When a building gets a facelift and is listed on Airbnb, for example, that’s “another example of yet another way that they’re [looking for] folks of a certain income”, said Henry.

Riechers, who lives and teaches in Philadelphia, said she had noticed Neutraface-like house numbers on many of the prefab houses currently being built all over the city.

“So much of the new construction isn’t architecturally distinctive – just straight-up rectangular boxes clad in aluminum siding, with a couple of windows,” she wrote. Her theory was that “by putting design-y house numbers on them, perhaps the developers are trying to elevate the overall look through a small detail”.

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These trends aren’t limited to a single city or place. Ryan Anderson, a 28-year-old who works in finance and lives in Venice, Los Angeles, with his girlfriend, has noticed similar sans serif fonts all over the neighborhood. Stripped down, modern-looking houses replace older, ranch-style homes, “and those guys invariably throw up the gentrification font – like, it’s always there”, he said.

Anderson said he and his partner were “decidedly” gentrifiers, by virtue of being high-earning professionals who can afford to rent in a neighborhood like Venice. “We are symptoms [of gentrification] as well,” he said. But he cringes at some of renovations, especially those that clash with the historic feel of the area, arguing it can feel like a “weird display of wealth in a neighborhood that didn’t really have it before”.

It’s possible that Neutraface’s five minutes of fame are fading. Riechers points out that housing numbers, like other facets of home decor and urban design, come in trends. A few weeks ago, “Neutra Modern House Numbers” in silver were on sale for 15% off on the Design Within Reach website (the gold ones were 60% off). “Maybe that’s an indication they’re on their way down,” Riechers said.

Andy Cruz, founder of House Industries, offered that Neutraface’s popularity, “good or bad, is really just a side-effect of good design”. Once a typeface is released into the world, its designers don’t have control over who uses it. “There are endless sans serif [fonts] to choose from, but I do think there is a little bit of magic dust in Neutra, the way that certain points are handled, certain curves,” said Cruz, who was the first person to ever prototype the Neutraface house numbers.

“When we tested them, I said, ‘Do my house number first.’ I loved it, and then we said, ‘OK, let’s fire up production.’”

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