itwonlast:
Paul Renner’s original design for Futura (1927-29) shows the influence of Herbert Bayer’s experimental “Universal” alphabet. The initial design included several geometrically constructed alternative characters and ranging (old-style) figures for lowercase a, g, and r, for some punctuation and for uppercase characters including German accents. Although the experimental alternates were originally included, they were quickly removed from the face’s character set for being too radical, resulting in the more conventional, and perhaps more economically successful, typeface we know today. The alternative characters can still be found in the revival typeface Architype Renner and Sol Hess’ LTC Twentieth Century Medium Alt, they’re also featured in one of the location cards in Quantum of Solace (by London design collective Tomato).
