Futura

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F u t u r a w e i g h t s a n d s t y l e s a t 9 6 p t

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FIG 1

Photograph of Paul Renner E. Wasow, c. 1930

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LIGHTFUTURA AT 230 PTS

a

1897-1903

FIG 3

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich,ca. Early Twentieth Century

FIG 2

Linotype typesetting machine, asused in the Debschitz workshops.

RENNER studied landscape painting at traditional artacademies in Germany, then learned Graphic Design

in the workshops of the Debschitz Schule .2

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4

Renner’s design career started soon

after: he worked as a Buchkünstler

(book-artist) for Georg Müller

Verlag, a Munich-based publishing

firm. He was offered the job when

Müller “gave Renner a strip of

cardboard corresponding to the

spine of a new book, and asked

him to make a design for it, without

any further explanation.” (28)

His obligations for these designcommissions were multifaceted:

not only did he create decorative

book spines, but he also designed

covers, front-matter, page

templates, and chose typefaces

and other specifications for the

printer. As seen (below) in his first

book about his design philosophy,

Typographie als Kunst, Renner

made conservative judgements on

page design. Although a German

book publisher, Müller’s collectionsincluded many books of Romantic

origin. For these editions, Renner

preferred not to use Gothic type, as

it would not appropriately convey

the source of the material. His

choice was to use Roman type for

such books, an aesthetic which laid

the foundations of his typographic

philosophy.

FIG 4

Interior spread of Typographieals Kunst . Body text columnsare set according to medieval

manuscript proportions.COLORED OVERLAY : The pagemargins are set in proportionwith the Golden Ratio (3:2:1),6p x 4p x 2p.

Futura Book shown at

640pts

o s

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Futura Book

shown at640pts

h n

Wittenburger Fraktur MT S

Duc De

Clois

Fut

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8

His typographic aesthetics too

strong root during this decade

and he became staunchly opp

to floridly decorative elements,

ragged columns, and script. H

example of perfect book-maki

was a spread of three equal

margins of white-space–alway

containing justified blocks of te

(All of this in exception when

dealing with poetry, which heunderstood to have a different

voice on the page than typica

literature or non-fiction.) Renne

Can

diff

machine

work prec

comparedisadv

But in the first two decades of the

twentieth century, Renner was still

very busy with Müller, and his

painting career took the back-

burner. He had rented a studio for

painting, but it was instead full of

sketches, design templates, and

proof-sheets of books; in 1913,

Renner alone designed 287

editions of books, new and old, for

Müller. His autonomy as a designer

grew immensely during this stage of

his career, as his commissioner was

not available for proof-checking at

all times. “Müller never had time for

calm discussion during the week,

so Renner often visited him on

Sundays.” Renner had a telephone

installed, and began making long-

distance phone calls to the book-

binding firm in Liepzig, Hübel &

Denck. He began taking freelance

contracts with other publishers, and

soon Müller was forced to write up

an exclusive contract for his work.

FIG 5

Spine and cover design of hisfirst book, Typographie als Kunst ,illustrates Renner’s practical use ofRoman and Gothic type. For clarityand ease of quick reading, thespine is set in Roman capitals. Theelaborate Gothic forms are savedfor the cover, where the reader

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FIG 6

Dessau Bauhaus.Dessau, Germany

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12

The issue of the artistic uniquen

in hand-crafted pieces versus

machine-work which produced

conformity and low quality pie

was integral to the Deutscher

Werkbund. From the 1910s, P

Renner involved himself greatly

the thoughts and movements of

organization of artists, designe

craft workers, and even politic

whom sought to reform the wayindustrialization was effecting

a

WITH the First World War underway, PaulRenner was drafted into the rank of Senior

Lieutenant. He did not see combat, but

was put in charge of a recruiting depot

outside the city of Munich.

FIG 7

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany,Emperor during World War One.

191912

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14

At the age of 33, Renner took

over the Debschitz Schule, in

1914. It was renamed Münchner

Lehrwerkstätten (Munich Teaching

Workshops) since he had

attended nearly ten years prior.

The curriculum taught a new

generation of students the skills

required to work with national

publishers. The school was

moved into the same building

as a successful and powerful

printing firm, so students received

experience with the commercial

practice of book design. From

illustration to expressive writing,

Renner impressed an importance

of understanding the entire form of

a book, even if the students would

in professional practice only be

concerned with the typographic

issues of book design. His teaching

career was put on hold in 1919,

when he left his position. During

his tenure, the First World War

broke out and the state subsidies

for the institution dried up. He

was drafted into the army as a

Senior Lieutenant in charge of a

recruiting depot outside Munich, so

he could no longer work full-time

for the school. His experience in

the army only strengthened his

resolve toward designed order

and control. During the First World

War, industrial standardization was

pushed globally for the benefit of

efficiency and military alliances.

Renner made his opinions clear on

those developing standards that

related to his work in book design

and typography.

Futura Book shown at

640pts

g c

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FIG 8

Constructive letterformsfrom early Futura sketches.Paul Renner, 1924-27

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The influence of the Bauhaus grew

into an international movement,

with its roots in Germany. Its

teachers and students tackled big

issues in typography, ushering in the

era of New Typography. Most of

the concepts of this manifesto could

be universally applied anywhere

in the world, even with non-

Roman characters. One concept

which was unique to German-

speaking cultures, however, was

the issue of Orthographic Reform:

the attempt to resolve problems

with spelling, grammar, and the

alphabet, in service of better visual

communication. Designers like Paul

Renner, Herbert Bayer and Jan

Tschichold proposed changes to

the use of capital letters in German

sentences. Every noun and pronoun

is capitalized in German, and the

reformists saw this as an overuse of

majuscules, which diminished the

hierarchical contrast between those

letterforms and lowercase forms.

Herbert Bayer created his universal

alphabet in 1926. There is no

uppercase set of letterforms,

just one case based mainly on

miniscules. He chose to use the

distinct uppercase forms for K and T

while sticking with lowercase forms

for the rest of the alphabet. He

believed this would help resolve the

overuse of capitals, but Renner only

saw a confusing blending of the

capitals into miniscules.

FIG 9 Universal Alphabet Herbert Bayer, 1926

FIG 10

Single Alphabet Jan Tschichold, 1930

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As Renner tackled the early designs

of Futura, he developed several

alternative letterform shapes. These

forms mark his biggest contribution

to the debate on reform. He sought

to visually reduce the complexity

of the alphabet, to return it to

simple forms of human handwriting:

making symbols with basic shapes.

F I G 11

An e a r l y t y p e s p e c i m e n o f F u t u r a .P a u l R e n n e r , 19 2 5

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FUTURSCHRI

ZEITdizeit TOF O

typefa

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FIG 12

Trial cut of Futuraca. 1925

FUTURA was initially released in three weights: Light,

Regular, and Bold, with oblique styles of each weight.

In subsequent releases, the constructivist forms (pictured

below) were removed and Renner added the Medium,Heavy, and Extra Bold weights.

1927

Although Renner began design

Futura in Frankfurt, creation

spanned several years – during

which revision after revision too

its the form steps away from the

initial plan of purely geometric

shapes to a foundation based

geometry but with an extremely

refined humanistic quality. Paul

24

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26

Moreover, the original drawings

for these minuscules were almost

bizarre. The r was comprised of

a vertical stroke next to a filled in

circle, which produced the image

of the familiar letter, but using

strict geometric construction. The

a was similarly produced with two

separate forms, a right angle above

a hollow circle to form a double-

story version of the glyph. Due

to reservations on the part of the

commissioning type foundry, Bauer,

some of these early forms were

provided only as supplemental to

the more conservative forms seen

here. In the very beginning, though,

the rejected forms were a big part

of the initial positive reaction to

Futura. As far as majuscules, the

most easily identified characters are

A , M, N, V , W , and Z, because of

the sharp apexes the strokes come

to, which go beyond the cap- and

baselines slightly, in the same way

counters do in nearly all typefaces.

In the Heavy , Bold and Extra

Bold weights of the font, however,

these apexes are cut, as they would

become so present that they would

seem to optically vibrate throughout

the white space of the leading. For

display-use point sizes, the Light

& Book weights produce elegant

forms and even color throughout

bodies of text.

A M N V W Z A M N V Z

A M V Z

medium at 80pts

bold at 80pts

extra bold at 80pts

FIG 13

Lunar plaque placed on the Moonduring the Apollo 11 mission in1969All type set in Futura.

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28

Between 1927 and 1953, Paul Renner

designed 20 fonts for Futura, including 10

condensed variants for each weight and

style. He also used Futura as the ba sis for two

display fonts: Futura Black (right) and Futura

Schlagzeile. Steile Futura (pictured below)

was his last typeface. It blends some of

Futura’s aspects with those from Grotesk type .

FIG 15

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30 Character outlines

incised in copper plates

that served as patterns

for matrix engraving

during the production

of Futura (for the 20

point size of the regular

weight). c. 1925.

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32

Paul Renner believ e t hat the negativ e and posit iv e r elationship bet w een the ty pogr aphy and t he page should be balanced: a neut ral grey . He f elt t hat too many t y pefaces put undue emphasis on the design of

some let ter sf orms and t r aits ov et o them to opt ically flick er. T o buf or Fut ur a, Renner used basic geit held the k ey t o achiev ing t he

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Adherence to simple geometric cthe first step, however. Renner

and widths of strokes as he deteroptical adjustments. The circle, perfect in the o. He designed F

totally forsake the fonts of th

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40

Near the beginning of March

1933, the Nazis had found g

success in the national election

and immediately began arresti

and imprisoning political dissid

of which there were many. The

previous year, Renner had his e

Kulturbolschewismus? (Cultura

Bolshevism?) published by a

friend in Zurich, Switzerland. (T

German publishers were forced

reject it, because of the dange

political environment during the

Nazi uprising.) He believed th

widespread belief in the Nazi

party was resultant of the lies a

misleading logic they distribute

Dr. Christopher Burquote from Paul Renner’

Kulturbolschewis

1933P AUL Renner had to have his anti-Nazi essay

Kulturbolschewismus? published by a Swiss

firm. No German publisher would take

the job, fearing the reprocusions from the

National Socialist party.

F IG 17

Cov er of Kul turbolsche wismus?

ca. 1932. 22 x 14.5 cm.

T y pe: black ; image: light r ed

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42

While he was away from his home

and office in Munich, it was raided

by Nazi Police. Several pieces,

most notably his speeches and

copies of Kulturbolschewismus? ,

were seized and used as evidence

against him, even citing some

as “Russian propaganda against

Germany.” He was taken into

custody on April 4th, 1933, but

released the day after, on the terms

that he would report to the policeevery other day. His daughter

vowed to her fiancé, a man with

family ties to Hitler, that her father

was not a political dissident, that

he should be released and should

keep his position as director of the

Munich Meisterschule.

Less than a year later, however, as

the evidence against him piled up,

Renner escaped to Switzerland.

In Zurich, he consulted the Swiss

Tourist Board in regards to

typography and graphic design.His absence from Germany

kept him from stirring up more

trouble with the Nazi party, but

when he attempted to return for

his daughter’s wedding, he was

accused of “spreading anti-German

propaganda in Switzerland.”

While awaiting a meeting with

the accuser in Munich (who never

showed), he missed the wedding

and was unable to see any of his

family before returning to Zurich.

FIG 18

Opening spread from a bookletfor the Swiss Tourist Board.

Paul Renner, 1934.

FIG 19

A student design exercisefrom the Meisterschule.ca.1930. A4

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44

Later in the war, the Nazis

rejected their initial stance on

Gothic typefaces, declaring that

the type was connected to the

leading Jewish banker of 1930s,

Paul von Schwabach. The stretch

of imagination that lead to this

conclusion was that the prominent

Gothic script of the time was

Schwabacher. This reversal of

ideology had clear implications:

Gothic was illegible to non-German

readers, so the dissemination of

propaganda would be increasingly

harder the further from Germany the

Reich stretched. Their typographic

choice would have to be Roman

letterforms. Several late-war posters

contain Futura and the display

version of the font, Futura Black.

FIG 21“Work, the protection against Anarchie!”

123.9 x 94.6 cm.Nazi propaganda poster with type set in

a Gothic font.

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: RESEARCH SOURCES

Burke, Christopher. Paul Renner: the Art

of Typography . New York: Princeton

Architectural, 1998. Print.

Burke, Christopher. “The Authorship of Futura ”

Baseline, issue 23 (1996): 33-39. Print.

Various Authors & Editors. Various Articles.

Wikipedia. Web. 17 Dec. 2011.

1

2

3

: IMAGES

p. 13

p. 43

p. 42

p. 87

p. 116

p. 87

p. 88

1

4

5

8

9 & 10

11

12

www.woodside

www.luirig.alterv

/04549-New-A

www.shutterstoc

www.dsm1918

spaceflight.nasa

www.loc.gov/p

herb.ashp.cuny.e

2

3

6

7

13

21

22

FROM WEB SOURCES:

FROM P AUL R ENNER :

46

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A B O U

T T H I S

B O O K

T H E B O

D Y T E X

T I S S E T

A T T E N

P O I N T

S

W I T H V A

R I O U S W

E I G H T

S O F F

U T U R

A

S E C T I O

N H E A

D E R S A N D P A

G E N U

M B E R S

A R E

S E T I N

F U T U R

A S C H L A

G Z E I L

E

D E S I G

N E D

B Y C O

R Y B L I

S C H E F O

R

T H E A

D V A N

C E D T

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C L A S

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O F T W

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T H O U S A N

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I V E R S I T Y

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B A L T I M

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O U N T

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