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FUTURA

a typeface of the future.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

History of Designer

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History of Typeface

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Characteristics

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Usage

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Influence

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Bibliography

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Colophon

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PAULRENNER History of Designer

Paul Friedrich August Renner was born in Wernigerode, Prussia and spent most of his life in Germany. He received a middle-class education and proceeded to study at several art academies during his higher education.

Renner finished his training at Munich in 1900 with a fine arts degree. He then began his career as a painter in Germany while he attended the Debschitz Schule School of applied art. He was a part of a graphic arts program, which focused on drawing, printing, illustration, book arts and typography skills.

He held many various jobs as a writer, teacher, painter, book-artist as well as a typographer.

In 1910 Renner became a member of the Deutscher Werkbund, which was a group of artists who worked to heighten standards of design and public taste. He is most notably known for his creation of the typeface Futura. When Paul Renner created this typeface he focused on using basic geometric shapes (circles, squares, triangles) to form the letters.

HISTORY History of Futura Paul Renner designed the German typeface in the mid 1920’s. It consists of many geometric shapes combined with linear elements to create the letterforms. The font was first released in 1927 and became a foundation of “New Typography.” It was designed for the old German Bauer foundry, which was a prominent German manufacturer of metal type. In 1930 expanded weights of Futura such as light oblique, medium oblique and demi-bold were released and in 1936 Futura Condensed was released.

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FUTURA Characteristics Futura is a sans-serif font. Under the sans serif classification there are four additional categories that could include a typeface: Grotesque, Neo-grotesque, Geometric, and Humanist. Futura falls under the Geometric category, which you can easily notice when looking at the typeface. Paul Renner focused on using geometric shapes (circles, squares, triangles) to shape the letters, which gives the typeface almost a mechanical feel. The font portrays more compressed letterforms and a heavier capital, giving the typeface a more classic feel. The ascenders of the small letters are taller than the capitals, which make the capitals look lighter. Even though Futura is considered a more geometric typeface, it is still one of the most harmonious and graceful san serifs ever made.

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Ascenders rise above ascender line

USAGE Usage Futura’s distinct look and easy readability make it a good headline font and also common for body text. During the 1950’s Futura was predominantly used by the publishing industry as a general-purpose font. It remains one of the most used sans-serif fonts today. The font is also very often used in advertisements as well as logos. For example, in 1997 the Pittsburgh Steelers switched to rounded numbers on the jersey to match the number font (Futura Condensed) on their helmets. Below I have many other widely known companies who use Futura in their logos.

INFLUENCE Influence on Futrua Many believe that the signing of the alphabet designed by Ferdinand Kramer, a colleague of Renner’s may have influenced the creation on Future. The German language also played a crucial role in the development of Futura. He made sure to consider the needs of the German language and considered Futura a German typeface.

Some say that Futura was inspired by the Bauhaus design philosophy, which stated that a modern typeface should express modern models rather than be a restoration of previous design. Futura’s crisp clean forms reflect the appearance of efficiency and forwardness even today, which simultaneously reflects modernism.

M M M The success of Futura has led to the creation of many other geometric sans-serif typefaces. Some were almost identical copies such as Avenir where as others were uniquely different like Kabel. However, you can easily see the influence Futura has had on both Avenir and Kabel simply by comparing the individual letters.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Bibliography ∙ http://www.linotype.com/762/paulrenner.html ∙ http://www.tdekon.net/type/character.html ∙ http://iamheathermoore.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/futura-typeface-the-history/ ∙ http://thefuturaisnow.com/anatomy.html ∙ http://people.ku.edu/~delange/paulrenner.html

This type specimen book is one of a series of books designed under the direction of instructor Igrid Hess by the students of Typography 1 at the College at Brockport, SUNY during the spring semester of 2012.

This volume explores the use and origins of the Futura typeface created by Paul Renner in 1927. This book has been researched, designed and edited by Ashley Augustyniak.

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