Font Study of Futura

There. done.






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Ok, ok I'm just kidding. But it does give a pretty textbook definition of the font.

The font I chose in my project and in this post is Futura, a Geometric Sans Serif font created by Paul Renner in the 1920s that counters many more traditional forms of type that emphasize a calligraphic feel from previous eras.  By the category alone we should be able to point out a few of the more obvious characteristics of this typeface.  It is Sans Serif meaning of course....NO SERIFS.  This contributes to the geometric feel of the type by creating those crisp corners.  Those crisp forms are continued everywhere on the type. For example on the capital letter "P" that I'm working on the counter can scarcely be called a "counter" at all, with its form reflected in the overall form with the same sharp corners and machine precision. While many typefaces have a bowl that conveys some sort of weight to it by connecting by using spurs, Futura's capital P has a bowl that is tipped exactly sideways to make a perfect semicircle. the stem and bowl are seemingly exactly the same in width making the whole shape uniform in strokes, making the letter P have NO stress whatsoever.

Overall the font has a beautiful simplicity to it. It could easily be stenciled and comes across as a mechanically manufactured sort of design.  Its logical and in its parented form fairly calm and unemotional.  What interesting to me is how well the balance is used and how even the slightest change in it can impart tremendous feeling and/or intensity. This has been reflected in the variation spun off of the parent type such as Futura Condensed or Bold