Franklin Gothic Morris Fuller Paul Benton & Renner Futura Futura 1927 Designer Paul Renner created the designed by Renner. Futura has con- typeface Futura in 1927. Futura is a tinued to thrive even to this day with nice geometric sans-serif font, which the help of it’s nice and clean design, unlike typical sans-serif fonts used and is a staple in the typographic in the display world, featured a low world. Young, thriving designers look X-height. Renner wanted to stay to typefaces such as Futura as inspi- away from any decoration when de- ration in the use their own work. signing the font, leaving it with just a crisp and clean typeface. Futura also included some features such as small capitals and old style figures. Renner is a German citizen, so Futura was designed in Germany. Since it’s re- lease, Futura has become one of the most popular fonts, and a common- ly used one for headlines, posters, banners, etc. There have been a few versions that have stemmed off of it’s creation and popularity, including Futura Black, Futura Display, Futu- ra Condensed, and Steile Futura, all Franklin Gothic 1902 Franklin Gothic is a grotesque, over the years. Franklin Gothic is the sans-serif font, designed by Ameri- most popular of the gothic series can designer Morris Fuller Benton in that Benton designed throughout his 1902. Since he was American, nat- career. Due to it’s fame, this typeface urally Franklin Gothic was created is frequently talked about in high in the United States. The typeface is regards in classrooms and schools bolder than a regular font and named where typography history is taught. after Benjamin Franklin. Some oddi- ties are that despite it being sans-ser- if, Franklin Gothic still stands by more traditional features such as a double story “a” and “g”. Benton wanted to create a clean and crisp typeface that took ideas from earlier models from the 1800’s. Over a span of ten years, different faces and sizes of the typeface were introduced, in- cluding condensed, extra condensed, italic and condensed shaded. Frank- lin Gothic is very popular and is used frequently in various types of media Paul Renner Paul Renner was born in 1878 in Wernigerode, Germany. He was not Typefaces by Renner a big fan of modern arts at the time like jazz and cinema, but he liked how much modernist focused on 1927 Architype Renner function and making thing easier to do. These traits really stick Renner in 1927 Futura the middle between a traditionalist, and a modernist, which is what he attempted with his typefaces, mixing 1928 Plak Gothic and Roman. This can be seen in Futura. During his time living, 1929 Futura Black Renner created multiple typefaces, many based around his most famous and popular font, Futura. When he 1932 Futura Light was not designing typefaces, Renner spent his time writing typography 1938 Ballade books, his most famous being (in their English translation) The Art of Typography, and Typography as Art. His 1939 Renner Antiqua life revolved around his typography. Morris Fuller Benton Morris Fuller Benton was born in 1872 in America. His father, Linn Gothic Typefaces Boyd Benton, was a very skilled type- face designer before him, and Full- by Benton er Benton was able to pick up the 1900 Globe Gothic designer qualities from his father and apply them later in life. Unlike some of his successors, Fuller Benton mas- 1902 Franklin Gothic tered and embraced the new tech- nology and thoroughly used them in 1903 Alternate Gothic his designs. He designed numerous typefaces, with his most famous be- ing the Gothic series, headlined by 1907 Monotone Gothic Franklin Gothic. When it was all said and done, Fuller Benton had com- 1908 News Gothic pleted 221 typefaces. He was an im- portant member of American Type Founders, and was Chief Type De- 1910 Clearface Gothic signer for 37 years starting in 1900. His Gothic series became very fa- 1930 Bank Gothic mous and highly regarded over time. Advertising Advertising in today’s world is huge. It is almost impossible to avoid see- ing an advertisement on a day-to-day basis. Ads are something that have become a huge part of our culture, and are being forced into our life every day. One of the biggest and most important factors in advertis- ing is what font is used. Choosing the right font is everything. The font chosen must represent the type of product or service being offered. For example you would not use a child- ish font if you were designing a logo or advertising for a law firm. Futura was revolutionary in the advertising world. It was not a usual sight at the and forever changed the advertising time to see a sans-serif font used in a game with the use of Futura. All it headline. Volkswagen challenged that took was a single word consisting of notion in the 60’s with their ad, Lem- five letters and a period, and Futura on, which became a huge success would solidify it’s spot in history.. Advertising (cont.) While Futura was making headlines, ed Franklin Gothic and became very literally, with Volkswagen, Franklin successful as the font for all head- Gothic was making it’s own. One lines, inside and out, and trusted it to of the most popular magazines in be the font that caught the users eye. the country, Time Magazine, adopt- It was the success of the font choice that has helped the magazine stay up there as one of the most popular magazines for over 90 years. Frank- lin Gothic has continued it’s in run in advertising as the main font for countless other brands. Some other places where Franklin Gothic is used include Bank of America’s Logo, cover art for Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl, the main font for the film poster of Rockey, and countless other places. Futura has also had a lot of success in the advertising world by being used as the main font for a few television shows such as Sesame Street, Lost, Doug, and Warehouse 13. Anthony Guagliardo Works Cited Burke, Christopher. Paul Renner: the art of typography. London: Hyphen Press, 1998. “Lemon.” Flickr. N.p., n.d. Web. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/alan- pf/5806353556/>. Jaspert, Berry and Johnson. Encyclopaedia of Typefaces. Cassell Paperback, London; 2001 GDES 2345 This Land is My Land. Time Magazine Articles. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.personal.psu.edu/cbp5032/blogs/pritts_ art_203/ed_article_time-magazine.jpg>. “Futura.” Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web.<http://upload.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Futura_Specimen.svg>. “Franklin Gothic.” Wikipedia. N.p., n.d.Web. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/commons/3/35/FranklinGothicSP.svg>..