Alterations

I felt this design didn't emphasize the geometric style of Futura enough. I experimented with adding more shapes, lines and letters that showcase these characteristics. I also felt that some of the text (such as Paul Renner) felt like it was a bit disconnected from the design so I rearranged them to align with different design features more clearly.

Made "1927" in Futura Bold and aligned it to black line to give it some consistency within the design. Alteration of the A in the corner design, drawing from a previous idea I had in my sketchbook. I prefer the previous version, this one looks too gothic and doesn't really say 'simple' geometic shapes. But the setting of '1927' is an improvement.

Developing some Ideas

I decided to take a pick a few ideas I was most interested in and developing them further by mocking them up in Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator proved to be a useful tool when it comes to manipulating type and vector graphics together. For the finals I will be transfering the design, somehow, into InDesign. For both designs I substituted the article with lorem ipsum just to see how it would look overall.

 For this design I started with the large 'f' and expanded the design from there with vertical and horizontal lines leading off from the word 'futura'. I experimented with rotating the design at different angles. I have to be careful not to make reading the article too difficult as rotating too much would mean people would have to physically turn the magazine just to read it, which wouldn't be good. I went for a red black and white colour scheme as these are some of the colours that particularly stood out to me when looking at inspiration like the moodboard. Red is also a very bold and alerting colour, which reflects Futura's popularity as display type thoughout the 20th century. Red and black seems to have been a popular colour scheme for advertising in the 1920s and 30s from what I've seen.

This design is based on another idea I sketched. It's much more simplistic and straight-forward. I think it conveys the idea that Futura is based on geometric shapes really well but might be limited as it doesn't really show any other weights or symbols found in the typeface. I like how it turned out though, I think it would jump out at the reader if they opened the spread to this page, in a similar way that Futura has been used to demand attention since its creation.

I'll develop them further experimenting with alterations in content, compostion and colour scheme to see if I can improve the designs.

Initial Sketches

Some ideas for the typographic spread I've come up with so far, scanned in from my sketchbook. I annoted some of the designs I thought were significant or possible choices for development.

Paul Renner

I thought it'd be a worthwhile idea to research the designer of Futura in some more depth as this could be useful when deciding what to write about in the article. This is an article I found on Typophile.com about his life:

Paul Friedrich August Renner was born in Wernigerode, Germany on August 9th, 1878. 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 with typeface and book design.

During the summer of 1924, Renner started to work on what would become a typeface called Futura, his most well-known work. Futura was a very important type of the time, especially in Germany, as it was a movement towards the modern roman letter and a departure from the Blackletter. Renner's Futura has also become the inspiration and foundation for many geometric types to date, and for that alone he 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 Kunst (Typography as Art), Die Kunst der Typographie (The Art of Typography) and Color 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.

"Boycott Futura Extra Bold Condensed"

 

This was a reaction to the use of Futura Extra Bold Condensed in movie advertising, created by Jerry Ketel in 1992. It reads:

“It’s time for Art Directors the world over to boycott the use of Futura Extra Bold Condensed – the most over-used typeface in advertising history. Destroy the Great Satan of clichés and the Little Satan of convenience, and rally to the cause of a better type selection.
Please fill out the enclosed petition and mail it to our headquarters. It will be used to sway the opinion-makers of our industry toward our just and worthy cause.
Together, we can whip this mother.”

I think it's interesting that the popularity of the typeface caused this kind of stir amongst designers. It shows how useful Futura has been since its creation, especially in commanding the attention of large audiences as seen in movie posters. It was clearly a popular trend in the 80s and 90s.

Extract from CreativePro.com

This is an extract from an article on Paul Renner I found on CreativePro.com which explains some of the impact futura had on graphic design at the time of its release:

"It is based on geometric shapes which became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919-1933. Futura was commercially released in 1927-1930 and it became a cornerstone of the 'New Typography' classified as Geometrical Modernism. Form follows function became the key words and careful reasoning constrained all the character shapes to their utmost functional simplicity. With Futura, in typographical terms, the industrial revolution had reached its logical conclusion.


Initially, Futura was issued by the Bauer Foundry in six weights, a condensed version in three weights, and an Inline. Renner's typeface family provided the right typographical tool for the professional designer and it became a popular choice for text and display composition. Even today, advertising typographers often use the combination of Futura Light/Book and Futura Extra Bold because of the design's stylish elegance and commanding visual power."


Notes:

• Form follows function
• Character shapes were constrained to their utmost functional simplicity
• The right tool for the professional designer
• Start of geometric Modernism and the cornerstone of "New Typography"

Futura in use

This is a plaque from the Apollo space mission to the moon in 1969. I noticed they used Futura for the message. This shows how Futura expresses a modern feel as it has been associated with new ideas like space travel.

Volkswagen also use Futura for their logo typeface. The style of the typeface reflects many things that are also associated with the Volkswagen brand such as efficiency, functionality and being forward thinking.

Futura makes frequent appearances in the animated TV show Futurama which parodies old science-fiction depictions of the future.

Futura was Stanley Kubrick's favourite typeface (particularly Futura Extra Bold) and he used it in various movies he made. He used Futura for the title of 2001: A Space Odyssey and I think it's very appropriate as the typeface has proven to be as timeless as the film itself, even though it was used in 1968. In that sense Futura is a suitable typeface for a film predicting what the future will be like in 2001.

Moodboard

For this project I decided to create a moodboard based on what I think of when I see the Futura typeface and its design. Hopefully this will help me generate some ideas when it comes to the design stage.

Things I associate with Futura:

• Retro-futuristic designs
• Bauhaus
• Art Deco patterns
• Streamlining
• Bold primary colours (also quite earthy colours)
• Sharp defined lines
• Aspirational designs
• Technology
• Efficiency

Futura

For this spread I've decided to use Futura as the topic. I'm quite interested in the style and I know there's quite alot of history behind it. This will give me more information to talk about in the article.

 

A Summary from Wikipedia: "Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933.[1] Commissioned by the Bauer Type Foundry, in reaction to Ludwig & Mayer's seminal Erbar of 1922, Futura was commercially released in 1927.

The family was originally cast in Light, Medium, Bold, and Bold Oblique fonts 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 was released in 1939. Extra Bold font was designed by Edwin W. Shaar in 1952. Extra Bold Italic font was designed in 1955 by Edwin W. Shaar and Tommy Thompson. Matrices for machine composition were made by Intertype.

Although Renner was not associated with the Bauhaus, he shared many of its idioms 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 geometrically constructed alternative characters and ranging (old-style) figures, which 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 visible in the almost perfectly round stroke of the o, which is nonetheless slightly ovoid. In designing Futura, Renner avoided the decorative, eliminating non-essential elements. The lowercase has tall ascenders, which rise above the cap line. The uppercase characters present proportions similar to those of classical Roman capitals."

Notes: 

• Based on geometric shapes
• Designed by Paul Renner between 1927 and 1930
• Influenced by Bauhaus ideals
• Communicates efficiency and forwardness
• Still modern looking
• Used frequently today