a r u t u
by Brandon Griffin
"It is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true."
-Piet Mondrian
futura
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ABCD
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UTURA
History
Paul
Renner Futura is a sans-serif typeface created in 1927 by German type designer Paul Renner. He based his design on the simple geometric shapes that were representative of the Bauhaus design style of the time. The letters are constructed from simple forms like the circle, triangle, and square. Renner chose to avoid decorative strokes, which gives the typeface the appearance of efficiency and forwardness. Even though Renner was not associated with the Bauhous, he still shared many of its ideas and felt that a modern typeface should embody modern models, instead of being a revival of an existing design.
a j v futura’s design is derived from basic geometric shapes, mainly circles, squares, and triangles .
BASIC STYLES
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ANATOMY
Much of Futura’s look is determined by it’s tall x-height. One very noticable characteristic is that the strokes are all of similar weights, resulting in a low contrast typeface. Upper case letters such as the A, M, N, V, and W have extremely sharp edges. Many of the lower case letters exend above the cap height. The O and other similar letters are comprised of near perfect circles.
DIFFERENCE
circle SQUARE Futura
triangle
circle SQUARE triangle Baskerville
circle SQUARE triangle Helvetica
INFLUENCE
circle SQUARE triangle Futura
circle SQUARE triangle Century Gothic
circle SQUARE triangle Twentieth Century
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Futura’s efficient and modern appearance has been utilized extensively since it’s release in 1927. Many of the original Bauhaus graphic designers used the type in their print mediums such as posters, books,
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and advertisements. To this day it has continued to appeal to designers and artists looking for a contemporary typeface that blends well with their contemporary designs. It has a global appeal and has been used
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over and over again for branding purposes and can be seen in many recognizable corporate logos such as Volkswagen, Domino’s Pizza, and swissair. Currently, Futura can be seen in several album and cd covers,
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as well as in many television shows and movies. It is said to be the favorite typeface of movie director Stanley Kubrick. And, popular movie director Wes Anderson has used it predominantly in the majority of his movies.
In 1969 members of the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission placed a stainless steel plaque on the moon with this inscription. It features text set in
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