Futura is a famous geometric font that’s still in use today. This article will tell you everything about the font’s history and impact on the design industry.
What is futura?
Futura is a sans-serif geometric typeface created by Paul Renner in 1927. It was created as part of the New He Frankfurt project. It is based on geometric shapes and circles similar to the Bauhaus style of the time. It was developed by the Bauer Type Foundry (Bauersche Giesserei) in competition with Ludwig & Mayer’s pioneering 1926 Erbar typeface. It is future-oriented and efficient.
Although Renner was not associated with the Bauhaus, he shared many of the Bauhaus idioms. He believed that modern typefaces should reflect contemporary models and not be resurrections or continuations of older designs. Renner’s design rejected many earlier sans-serif models of his designs, now called grotesque. These were based on symbolic pictures and condensed models of letters. Instead, Renner uses simple geometric shapes such as squares, triangles and squares. It is based on strokes of approximately uniform thickness and low contrast.
Lowercase letters use tall ascenders that exceed the uppercase line. It also uses a one-story, almost circular shape for the ‘a’ and ‘g’, which are more common in handwriting than in printed text. The capitalization proportions are similar to those of classical Roman capital letters. It corresponds to various sizes with the original metal type. Different digitizations are published by different companies. The Bauer Type Foundry and American Distribution Arm have widely promoted Futura because it captures the spirit of modernity. They used the German slogan “The font of our time” and the English slogan “The typeface of today and tomorrow”. It has been popular ever since.
History
German type designer and renowned artist Paul Renner designed Futura in 1927. Bauer Type Foundry commissioned this as the typeface for the New He Frankfurt project. This was a modernist affordable housing project. Inspired by the geometric design style of the Bauhaus, which flourished from 1919 to his 1933. Bauhaus was founded on simplicity, modernity and functionality. A typeface that emphasizes function over form was born. Although Renner was not involved in Bauhaus, he shared the same idea of reducing form to essence. That typeface was a clean, simple typeface that conveyed forward-thinking, modern ideas. It gained popularity as soon as it was released, and now you can see it everywhere.
Futura Usage
It is a versatile typeface. It condensed and Bold variants ensure a powerful display design. It is ideal for environments with sensitive spaces. Its simple letter form makes it easy to set up at small sizes without sacrificing legibility. It is also great for small text blocks, captions and pull quotes.
Quick facts about Futura Font
Before delving into Futura history, let’s start by reviewing some facts.
- Paul Renner designed this geometric sans serif in his 1927.
- It was considered a progressive typeface representing the European avant-garde.
- It was a symbol of the Bauhaus ideology of function over form. Contrary to popular belief, that typeface was not designed in collaboration with schools.
- It was used to create the 1969 Apollo 11 lunar plaque.
- It font is one of the most commonly used fonts.
- Bauer Type Foundry describes this as ‘the typeface of its time’.
- It has been recreated many times over the years by various types of foundries.
It is a versatile typeface. Futura’s condensed and bold variants make for powerful display designs. It is a great choice for spaces-sensitive environments. It simple letterforms make it easy to set up at small sizes without affecting the legibility. It is also well-suited for small blocks of text copy, captions, and pull-quotes.
Futura font structure
I use simple geometric shapes and even width strokes to eliminate contrast. The only exception to even width is lowercase letters like “a”. Lowercase letters have greater ascenders and descenders than uppercase letters. This font is elegant and different from other geometric fonts. It also means that the font requires more line spacing within paragraphs. This font is perfect for creating catchy headlines. Many versions of the Futura display font have been created by different manufacturers. Display text can use that font Condensed or Bold fonts. The low x-height of the font makes it difficult to read long sections of text.
Futura Font is versatile
This font is available in a wide range of fonts and weights. This font is very versatile and can be used for almost any project. Suitable for display copy, print copy, and digital copy. Despite being a very popular typeface, its usage is very different from the more common Times New Roman and Helvetica typefaces. It has been used on many aerospace-inspired movie posters, album covers, and car ads. Its Bold was made in a metal font with some weights. The Condensed font is a condensed version of that font family. The Family was first published in 1930. The last font released was a light, slightly slanted font released in 1950. Futura Display used square strokes, unlike regular font families. Letters look more rectangular. This variant was used in the Star Trek novels. We also use a Canadian Tire Corporation variant.
Conclusion
Futura is as popular as Helvetica. It is a versatile, modern, geometric typeface that reflects today’s industrial age. With over 90 years of history, this is still in use today and is a favorite among forward-thinking brands. It’s used in everything from Nazi propaganda to automobiles and fashion brands. It was the first typeface sent to the moon by the Apollo 11 mission. Some might argue it’s too common, but they have one thing in common.
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