LTC Twentieth Century Medium
Based on Paul Renners original drawings for Futura, Saul Hess’ Twentieth Century for Lanston Monotype is a reincarnation which also includes the experimental alternates which had been left out of the Futura that we know.
As many geometric typeface experiments of the New Typography failed to come to fruition, Futura succeeded where the others failed. Due to Renner optically correcting the characters and basing his proportions on old-style types rather than new, the modern sans serif was released by the Bauer font foundry in 1927—30.
At first the experimental alternates were included in the original version but were quickly discarded, being considered too ugly and radical by many. Hess’ redrawing, however, includes these lost letterforms which really add an extra modernist touch to this font family.
Paul Renner's original experimental alternates
One example of where this version (or similar) has been used is in the scene titles from Quantum of Solace. ‘Bregenz, Austria’ is rendered using the alternate characters to great effect although there would be issues of legibility when used in body text.
Tomato's scene title from Quantum of Solace
A body type sample.
LTC Twentieth Century Medium is available here.
Sorry but there are no comments for this post yet.