Wes Anderson films. Field Notes journals. The U.S. plaque on the moon.
Futura is iconic.
But that doesn’t mean it’s always served up at its best.
A few years ago, Monotype Creative Type Director Steve Matteson gave a talk about the origins of Futura, and he wanted to create an accompanying keepsake to leave his audience with. So he locked up some metal type and letterpressed one.
When he did, the typeface came alive in all new ways: Gone was the coldness he had long felt was imbued in the design, and instead he found an all-new rhythm, balance and readability.
Matteson wanted to bring that feeling back to modern Futura—and today, with the launch of Futura Now, he, Terrance Weinzierl and Juan Villanueva have.
The problem with previous digital offerings of Paul Renner’s 1927 design is that they essentially were copies of copies of copies—and from medium to medium, things became lost. With the new release, Monotype sought to restore the original character of the face, while expanding in organic directions.
All told, Futura Now encompasses 102 styles, 89 languages, 600 characters, new weights, decorative variants, and even a variable font.
“It brings some much-needed humanity back to the world of geometric sans serifs,” Matteson details. “Despite its reputation as the ultimate modern typeface, Futura Now is surprisingly warm. It’s just as at home set next to a leafy tree as it is next to a stainless-steel table, because it skillfully navigates the border between super-clean geometry and humanist warmth.”
Check it out in action below—and to get a copy, click here.
