{{Short description|Font using shapes of US Congress districts}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox font | name = Ugly Gerry | image = Ugly Gerry font sample.png | style = Script (typefaces) | releasedate = {{start date and age|2019|9}} | creator = Ben Doessel and James Lee| latin = yes (no digits) | greek = no | cyrillic = no }}
'''Ugly Gerry''' is a font that uses the shapes of United States congressional districts for each of its characters, created in 2019 as a protest against gerrymandering.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/02/how-do-you-spell-gerrymandering-is-bad-with-font-made-out-preposterous-districts/|title=How do you spell 'gerrymandering is bad?' With a font made out of preposterous districts|last=Epstein|first=Kayla|date=August 3, 2019 |newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/you-can-download-font-gerrymandered-congressional-districts-2019-8|title=There's a new downloadable font inspired by gerrymandered congressional districts|last=Panetta|first=Grace|website=Business Insider| date=August 2, 2019 | access-date=February 12, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fontsarena.com/ugly-gerry/|title=Ugly Gerry Font|last=|first=|date=August 2, 2019|website=Fonts Arena |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://boingboing.net/2019/08/01/ugly-gerry-a-font-based-on-ge.html| first=Rob | last=Beschizza | title=Ugly Gerry, a font based on gerrymandered districts|date=August 1, 2019|website=Boing Boing|language=en-US|access-date=February 12, 2020}}</ref> It was designed by Ben Doessel and James Lee of the Leo Burnett Agency in a project for RepresentUs.<ref name="most_revolting">{{cite web|last=Campbell-Dollaghan|first=Kelsey|date=August 2, 2019|title=The world's most revolting font is made out of gerrymandered voting districts|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90385354/the-worlds-most-revolting-font-is-made-out-of-gerrymandered-voting-districts|access-date=April 6, 2021|website=Fast Company}}</ref><ref name="adc_award">{{cite web|title=2020 ADC Awards - Typography: Ugly Gerry|url=https://www.oneclub.org/awards/adcawards/-award/35570/ugly-gerry|website=The One Club for Creativity}}</ref>
==Design==
The designers' intention was to draw attention to gerrymandering:<ref name="most_revolting" />
<blockquote>The team is from Chicago, and after seeing how janky our Illinois 4th district had become, we became interested in this issue. ... Its notorious earmuff shape looked like a U, then after seeing other letters on the map, the idea hit us, let's create a typeface so our districts can become digital graffiti that voters and politicians can't ignore.</blockquote>
Shapes that loosely resemble the letters 'A' through 'Z' were used to create the (uppercase) font.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/01/this-free-ugly-font-is-made-from-hideously-gerrymandered-districts/ | last=Coldewey | first=Devin | title=This free, ugly font is made from hideously gerrymandered districts|website=TechCrunch|language=en-US | date=August 2, 2019 | access-date=February 12, 2020}}</ref> Some of these shapes are not of single districts but instead combine pairs.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.rollcall.com/2019/08/02/ugly-gerry-wants-you-to-know-the-ugly-truth-about-gerrymandering/ | title=Ugly Gerry wants you to know the 'ugly' truth about gerrymandering | last=Lyons |first=Kathryn | website=Roll Call | date=August 2, 2019 | access-date=April 9, 2021}}</ref>
Ugly Gerry has been called "the world's most revolting font".<ref name="most_revolting" /> {| class="wikitable" |+ !Letter !District(s) |- |A |California's 3rd and Texas's 35th |- |B |Ohio's 12th and 7th |- |C |Connecticut's 1st |- |D |Missouri's 8th |- |E |Missouri's 6th |- |F |Oregon's 5th |- |G |Ohio's 4th |- |H |North Carolina's 6th |- |I |Texas's 15th |- |J |Illinois's 18th |- |K |Alabama's 1st |- |L |New York's 7th |- |M |New York's 8th |- |N |Illinois's 11th |- |O |Arizona's 6th |- |P |Florida's 25th |- |Q |Texas's 12th |- |R |Ohio's 10th and Michigan's 13th |- |S |Tennessee's 4th |- |T |California's 43rd |- |U |Illinois's 4th |- |V |New Jersey's 5th |- |W |New York's 8th |- |X |California's 8th and 14th |- |Y |Illinois's 12th |- |Z |Indiana's 8th and Ohio's 8th |}
== Usability == The Ugly Gerry font has no numerals or special characters. It provides only the capital letters 'A' to 'Z' (no lowercase) and some punctuation. At the foot of each page of its website is "No rights reserved".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uglygerry.com|title=Ugly Gerry | access-date=April 6, 2021}}</ref>
==Recognition== Ugly Gerry won the 2020 ADC Award for typography.<ref name="adc_award" />
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == *[https://web.archive.org/web/20190801171506/https://uglygerry.com/ Official website] (archived 2019 version) *{{Official|https://www.uglygerry.com/}} (2024 version)
Category:Casual script typefaces Category:Gerrymandering in the United States Category:Political art Category:Public domain typefaces Category:Typefaces and fonts introduced in 2019