Probably the most important geometric sans typeface, often imitated but never (q

uite) excelled. Designed by Paul Renner for the old German Bauer foundry (today
the Fundición Tipográfica Bauer in Spain) between 1927 and 1930. Strongly influenced
by the Weimar-era minimalist spirit that also played a role in the Bauhaus scho
ol (Renner himself was not a member of the Bauhaus). The large Futura family com
prises one of the earliest sans serif type systems, and has grown over the years
to include a complementary condensed family, a wide range of weights, and obliq
ues.
Almost 80 years later, Futura's popularity as a crisp, clean sans serif typeface
has not waned, and versions of the family are available from almost every major
vendor. The original designs owned by Fundición Tipográfica Bauer are distributed v
ia the Spanish foundry Neufville Digital, who offer a superior version of the fa
mily with old style figures and small caps. Futura as Renner originally conceive
d it was definitely a product of the experimental spirit of the times, and inclu
ded a wide variety of radically diverse alternate forms for various letters. Whi
le not offered by Bauer with the original metal version of the typeface, and the
n left unavailable for many years, these alternate forms were included by The Fo
undry in their issue of Architype Renner.
> http://typophile.com/node/12494
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Paul Friedrich August Renner was born in Wernigerode, Germany on August 9th, 187
8. Growing up into his teenage years he studied Greek and Latin for 9 years, and
then moved on to study art at a higher level, finishing his formal education in
1900. Following this Renner became involved with design and became concerned wi
th typeface and book design.
During the summer of 1924, Renner started to work on what would become a typefac
e called Futura, his most well-known work. Futura was a very important type of t
he time, especially in Germany, as it was a movement towards the modern roman le
tter and a departure from the Blackletter. Renner's Futura has also become the i
nspiration and foundation for many geometric types to date, and for that alone h
e deserves mention. During his career he designed two other typefaces, Plak and
Tasse, which like Futura are also commercially available.
Furthermore, throughout his time, he wrote a number of books; Typographie als Ku
nst (Typography as Art), Die Kunst der Typographie (The Art of Typography) and C
olor Order And Harmony to name a few. After a long career at the age of 78, Paul
Renner died on April 25th, 1956 in Hödingen, Germany.
> http://typophile.com/node/12191
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In typography, Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Pau
l Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elem
ents of the Bauhaus design style of 1919 1933.[1] Commissioned by the Bauer type f
oundry, Futura was commercially released in 1927.
The family was originally published in Light, Medium, Bold, and Bold Oblique fon
ts in 1928. Light Oblique, Medium Oblique, Demibold, and Demibold Oblique fonts
were later released in 1930. Book font was released in 1932. Book Oblique font w
as released in 1939. Extra Bold font was designed by Edwin W. Shaar in 1952. Ext
ra Bold Italic font was designed in 1955 by Edwin W. Shaar and Tommy Thompson.
Although Renner was not associated with the Bauhaus, he shared many of its idiom
s and believed that a modern typeface should express modern models, rather than
be a revival of a previous design. Renner's initial design included several geom
etrically constructed alternative characters and ranging (old-style) figures, wh
ich can be found in the typeface Architype Renner.
Futura has an appearance of efficiency and forwardness. The typeface is derived
from simple geometric forms (near-perfect circles, triangles and squares) and is
based on strokes of near-even weight, which are low in contrast. This is most v
isible in the almost perfectly round stroke of the o, which is nonetheless sligh
tly ovoid. In designing Futura, Renner avoided the decorative, eliminating non-e
ssential elements. The lowercase has tall ascenders, which rise above the cap li
ne. The uppercase characters present proportions similar to those of classical R
oman capitals.
Original Futura design also included small capitals and the old-style figures, w
hich were dropped from the original metal issue of the type. The digital version
s of these glyphs were first produced by Neufville Digital under the Futura ND f
amily.
Released in 1929, Futura Black is an alternate design that uses stencil letter f
orms. Released in 1932, Futura Display uses more angular strokes, resulting in r
ectangular letter forms. Futura Condensed is a condensed version of the original
Futura font family. Bold and bold oblique fonts were released in 1930. Medium,
medium oblique, extra bold, and extra bold oblique fonts were released in 1936.
Light and light oblique fonts were released in 1950.
The success of Futura coincided with the creation of many new geometric sans-ser
if faces by competing foundries including Kabel, Metro, Vogue, Erbar, Spartan, T
wentieth Century, and Century Gothic among others. Some were near identical copi
es as in Spartan and Vogue, but others, were uniquely different including Nobel
and Kabel.
Futura's success spawned a range of new geometric sans-serif typefaces from comp
eting foundries, and remains one of the most used sans-serif types into the twen
ty-first century. Futura remains an important typeface family and is used on a d
aily basis for print and digital purposes as both a headline and body font. The
font is also used extensively in advertisements and logos, notably by IKEA (unti
l 2010), Volkswagen, Shell Petrol and HP in their print ads.[citation needed] Fo
r example, the font is used for the title logo of the 1999 film American Beauty.
Futura also features ubiquitously throughout the film adaptation of V for Vende
tta, used for everything from the title logo and ending credits, to signs, newsp
apers, computer screens and other props. Wes Anderson is also fond of the font a
nd has used it for all of his films. Futura was also Stanley Kubrick's favourite
font[4]. In 1997, the Pittsburgh Steelers (an American Football team) switched
to rounded numbers on the jersey to match the number font (Futura Condensed) on
their helmets. It is also used on the Bell Canada and the current TV5 (Philippin
es) logo. Futura is also Animax Asia's main typeface. The Boston Celtics' champi
onship banners are also in Futura Condensed.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_%28typeface%29
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Paul Renner (August 9, 1878 April 25, 1956) was a typeface designer, most notabl
y of Futura. He was born in Wernigerode, Germany and died in Hödingen.
He was born in Prussia and had a strict Protestant upbringing, being educated in
19th century Gymnasium. He was brought up to have a very German sense of leader
ship, of duty and responsibility. He was suspicious of abstract art and disliked
many forms of modern culture, such as jazz, cinema, and dancing. But equally, h
e admired the functionalist strain in modernism. Thus, Renner can be seen as a b
ridge between the traditional (19th century) and the modern (20th century). He a
ttempted to fuse the Gothic and the roman typefaces.
Renner was a prominent member of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation)
. Two of his major texts are Typografie als Kunst (Typography as Art) and Die Ku
nst der Typographie (The Art of Typography). He created a new set of guidelines
for good book design and invented the popular Futura, a geometric sans-serif fon
t used by many typographers throughout the 20th century and today. The typeface
Architype Renner is based upon Renner's early experimental exploration of geomet
ric letterforms for the Futura typeface, most of which were deleted from the fac
e's character set before it was issued. Tasse, a 1994 typeface is a revival of R
enner's 1953 typeface Steile Futura.
Renner was a friend of the eminent German typographer Jan Tschichold and a key p
articipant in the heated ideological and artistic debates of that time.
Even before 1932, Renner made his opposition to the Nazis very clear, notably in
his book Kultur-bolschewismus? (Cultural Bolshevism?). He was unable to find a Ge
rman publisher, so it was published by his Swiss friend Eugen Rentsch.
After the Nazis seized power in March 1933, Paul was arrested and dismissed from
his post in Munich in 1933, and subsequently went into a period of internal exi
le. Soon after the book's publication, it was withdrawn from the German book mar
ket, until a photo-mechanical reprint was issued by Stroemfeld Verlag, Frankfurt
am Main/Basel, in 2003. The new edition included comments by Roland Reuss and P
eter Staengle (a main source for these notes).[1]
Typefaces he designed (separated by commas):
Futura (1928), Plak (1928), Futura Black (1929), Futura light (1932), Ballade (1
938), Renner Antiqua (1939)
Books he wrote (separated by semi-colons):
Typographie als Kunst, Munich 1922; Mechanisierte Grafik. Schrift, Typo, Foto, F
ilm, Farbe, Berlin 1930; Kulturbolschewismus?, Zurich 1932,; Die Kunst der Typog
raphie, Berlin 1939, New print Augsburg 2003; ISBN 3875124146,; Das moderne Buch
, Lindau 1946,; Ordnung und Harmonie der Farben. Eine Farbenlehre für Künstler und H
andwerker, Ravensburg 1947; Vom Geheimnis der Darstellung, Frankfurt 1955
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Renner
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