Typography
Typography choices say a lot about an organization. Our primary and secondary typefaces have been chosen to convey both the optimistic, forward-thinking tone of the university as well as to connect to our history of excellence and impact.
To obtain licensed brand fonts, submit the name of the unit and individual user to comms.contact@msu.edu or call 517-355-7505.
Primary Typefaces
GOTHAM (sans serif)
Gotham has been an essential part of MSU's brand identity for more than a decade. Approachable and modern, yet classic, it evokes MSU's open, collaborative and forward-thinking approach to solving problems and providing opportunity. Gotham is the only typeface approved for use in the ‘Part of’ campaign.
Gotham has many weights and is appropriate for almost any application.
- The SPARTANS WILL. tagline should always be set in Gotham.
- Gotham may be used in both headlines and text. It is recommended for subheads because of its clarity.
- All uppercase is preferred for headlines.
- Gotham Bold or Gotham Ultra work well to distinguish headlines set smaller from text and subheads in the same font.
- In designs that allow for airy negative space around the headline, thinner versions of the Gotham typeface are effective, including Gotham Book and Gotham Thin.
- Gotham Narrow is particularly useful for text, lists and bullets.
The recommended typeface for use on MSU websites is Gotham, which has been licensed for units to use on MSU websites. To learn more, refer to the MSU Web Standards.
GOTHAM — thin/book/bold (16 styles available)
GARAMOND (serif)
A serif typeface may be more appropriate in limited contexts that call for more traditional or formal design. The primary sans serif font family for MSU is Garamond. When Garamond is unavailable, Times New Roman is the next most appropriate option.
GARAMOND — regular/bold (3 styles available)
Secondary Typeface
LIBERATOR (sans serif)
Liberator is a bold and condensed typeface with a traditional, yet contemporary, appeal. This sturdy typeface will add a striking sense of nostalgia to designs and may be appropriate for certain audiences and communications.
- Liberator is an all-uppercase font recommended for use in headlines for advertising, billboards and other display-type content. It should not be used for body copy or websites.
Typeface Substitutions
These typefaces may be used as substitutes for the primary brand typefaces. Because Gotham and Liberator are not standard fonts on most computers, the typeface substitutions identified below should be used when creating documents or presentations intended to be shared in their native file formats (i.e., not designed and saved as PDF documents).
- Arial (sans serif)
- Helvetica (sans serif)
- Times New Roman (serif)
ARIAL — regular/bold/black (5 styles available)
HELVETICA — light/regular/bold (6 styles available)
TIMES NEW ROMAN — regular/bold (4 styles available)
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