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ABOUT

Paul Renner

German type designer, architect and Bauhaus-style designer, b. 1878, Wernigerode, d. 1956, Hödingen. He designed the famous and popular Futura between 1924 and 1936 at Bauer. He had a strict Protestant upbringing, being educated in a 19th-century Gymnasium. He was eductaed with a traditional German sense of leadership, duty and responsibility. Despite the fact that Futura came to symbolize abstract ideas, but also modernism and jazz, Renner disliked abstract art and many forms of modern culture, such as jazz, cinema, and dancing.

Later weights include the headline stencil typeface Futura Black. Deberny&Peignot issued the Futura family under the name Europe. Spartan (American Typefounders and Mergenthaler Linotype) is similar but not identical. Intertype Futura Extra Bold was designed by Edwin W. Shaar (roman in 1952; italic in 1955 with Tommy Thompson). Neufville published a revival of his Futura fonts. This 50+ family, Futura ND (1999), has Small Caps, Old Style Figures, Display and Black (stencil), and was digitized by Marie-Therésè Koreman. The typophiles generally agree that this version of Futura is the best digital implementation around. Nick Curtis's Airport Tourist (2009) is modeled after Futura. In 2013, URW++ published Futura Round. Tens of other typefaces are also descendants of Futura.

Renner's typeface "Topic" is also known as Steile Futura (1952) [check also Bauer Topic (The Font Company), Tasse (1994, Guy Jeffrey Nelson at Font Bureau) and URW Topic for digitizations]. Renner also designed the Fraktur font Ballade (1937, Berthold; revived by Dieter Steffmann in 2002), the geometric sans family Plak (1928), Futura Schlagzeile (1932), and Renner Antiqua (1939, D. Stempel). Plak was revived in 2018 by Linda Hintz and Toshi Omagari at Monotype as Neue Plak.

Renner, who was a prominent member of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation), wrote Typografie als Kunst (Typography as Art) and Die Kunst der Typographie (The Art of Typography).

Bibliography: Christopher Burke wrote "Paul Renner: the art of typography", Hyphen Press, 1999. U&LC review. Bio by Nicholas Fabian. In 2007, Nathalie Wegener wrote a graduation thesis on Renner entitled Paul Renner. Au-delà du Futura.

Klingspor link. FontShop link.

Showcase of Paul Renner's fonts. View digital typefaces based on Futura.

EXTERNAL LINKS
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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Blackletter fonts ⦿ Stencil fonts ⦿ German type scene ⦿ Bauhaus and type design ⦿ Dieter Steffmann ⦿