FUTURA. P A U L R E N N E R
Futura has a restful appearance when used for continuous text. Even though it is geometric, it is one of the most harmonious and rhythmical sans serifs, it’s proportions are graceful, humane and suitable for setting extended text. The appropriately named Futura, is as relevant today as it was at the time of its creation. The makers of this font saw more than just “good design”, they saw the makings of a maximally efficient society — a utopia.
PAUL RENNER
FUTURA The Bauhaus designers believed in a world where form and function destroyed ornamentation, clutter and revivals of the more decorative past. It would be utopia by design. Derived entirely from geometric forms (near-perfect circles, triangles and squares), with strokes of near-even weight and distinctively tall lowercase letters that rise even above its capitals, Futura looks like efficiency itself: clean, standardized, legible, stylish without any overt “style.”
1927
Futura became a symbol of the future and that was a problem for the Nazis, the gothic styles that represented the visual identity of the Nazis was openly rejected by Renner who also wrote essays that were anti-Nazi. When publishing Futura, Renner described it as a German font however due to Nazi control sans serif fonts were being rubbed off, but they were inconsistent and suddenly decided their Fraktur typeface was too Jewish and therefore took to clean looking futura.
P A U L R E N N E R
F U T U R A
however it has already been accepted by the rest of the world and had now gained international fame which is what may have saved this typeface. When it was time for NASA to choose a font to travel to the moon with them, they picked based on the availability of physical blocks of letters and a font that was loved by Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson alike. That is how, Futura, a type we see so often today, travelled beyond the Nazi’s, beyond Germany and beyond 1940, to the moon.
Futura is now one of the most
recognizable and widely used typefaces in
history.
The mark it has left on
civilization is almost frightening. It instantly transmits familiarity and depth of meaning, but it risks just as many unwanted
visual associations. Used uncritically, Futura becomes little more than a
fetish
for the past or a
lazy
habit. This font became so ubiquitous and so overused that in 90s art directors all over advocated the boycotting of this clean font. They wanted to destroy the great Satan of clichés and the little Satan of convenience and rallied to the cause of better type selection. Their movement was called, “art directors against Futura extra bold condensed”
BOYCOTT FUTURA HOWEVER IT MANAGED TO SLITHER IT’S WAY BACK IN DUE TO ITS TIMELESS APPEAL
F F F F E
69 pq bd A lot of the letters and numbers are perfect reflections of one another, such as ‘b’ & ‘d’
BbDdFfHhKkLl The ascenders are longer than the cap height
The letters tend have the same height & width/weight
BDEFHIKLNPRT
ears to be a per app
LThe ‘O ’
circle fect
O
B A U H A U S
.a . .r . .w .
b . c .d . e . f . g . h .i . k . l . m. n. o . p . q. s . t . v . x . y 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 . . z 0
. j . u .
Renner seemed to accept some of the new ideas and principles of the Bauhaus and the New Typography, yet he never completely rejected knowledge or traditions from the history of the arts. Renner felt the essence of modern design lay in the timeless, aesthetic aspects of design and therefore maintained a balance between modernism and traditionalism. Renner designed Futura based off of eternal rules which adhered to primary geometric shapes which were the simplest and most contrasting forms and applied Bauhaus ideals in a pragmatic way for the sake of a functional, useable typeface. Due to this blend, even though Renner designed Futura keeping old school roman numerals in mind, it was advertised as the typeface for the future.
4
6 555
1 7
5
..,:;:;”ʼ[{*#!!??*#}]ʼ”;:;:,..
1
1
0 3
4 8
5 9
6 &
2 7
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