geometric
geometric
near even stroke weights
tall lowercase letters
Paul Renner was a graphic designer in Germany in the 20th Century. Born in 1878, Renner was raised in a strict Christian household by his mother and father. He grew up and went to school to study arts, specifically painting. Which is surprising because of his strict upbringing, Renner was not very fond of the abstract arts. However, somewhere along the way, he switched his focus to graphic design, perhaps because he found design had a stronger purpose. He ended up becoming the head of The Printing Trade School in Munich and later the director of the Master School for Germany's Printers.
Though, his position did not last long after the Nazi's rise to power. Renner openly stood against the Nazi's and even wrote a book about it. This resulted in his arrest and getting fired from his job. This did not stop him though. Afterward, Renner just dove deeper into the world of graphic design. He wrote books on typography and how to better design books. These were not his greatest accomplishments though.
His most famous contribution to graphic design was his creation of the typeface Futura PT. He got his inspiration from the Bauhaus principles, specifically, that form follows function. Although Renner was not a part of the Bauhaus, he agreed with the Bauhaus principles and had already been thinking about the functionality of the typefaces used in Germany at the time He was trying to make a typeface with intentions of it being functional and functional only. He felt that the Gothic typefaces were outdated and too ornate to be easily readable. So he got to work and made his first sketches of Futura in 1924.
Many say that Futura PT was actually made in competition with the first-ever geometric typeface designed by Jakob Erbar called Erbar-Grotesk released in 1926. Erbar was a part of the Bauhaus at the time and was also trying to make a simplistic typeface without any decoration. Whether this is true or not, it is important to note that Futura PT was made in accord with the New Frankfurt project which was a public housing program in Frankfurt, Germany. Although it was not until 1927 that the typeface was officially finished.
It is said that he combined the Roman and Gothic typefaces to create Futura PT. Made entirely from geometric forms, Futura PT has almost all even strokes and lower-case letters which are taller than their capitals, making the sans-serif typeface easily readable. It is because of these characteristics that make Futura timeless. It is the reason so many companies use it in their logos to this day.
This however comes as no surprise. Just one look at the typeface and you can see that it is a very versatile typeface. Since it was originally released in 1927 two other designers, Edwin Shaar and Tommy Thompson added Extra Bold and Extra Bold Italic to the typeface. Because of the range of weights to choose from Futura can be used for a Headline as well as it could be used for a body of text and anywhere in between which is just another reason this typeface is still used over 90 years later and will continue to be used in the years to come.
