Paul Renner (1878-1956)
Paul Renner was born in Prussia and had a strict Protestant upbringing being educated in 19th century Gymnasium. He was brought up to have a very German sense of leadership, of duty and responsibility. He was suspicious of abstract art and disliked many forms of modern culture, such as jazz, cinema, and dancing. But equally, he admired the functionalist strain in modernism. Thus, Renner can be seen as a bridge between the traditional (19th century) and the modern (20th century). He attempted to fuse the Gothic and the roman typefaces.
As well as being most famous as designer of the typeface Futura, he made a significant contribution to modern typography through his teaching and writing. His principal book is Die Kunst der Typographie (1939).
He was arrested in 1933 and made to leave his post as director of the Meister schule in Munich. He was hounded by the Gestapo in 1944 after an assassination attempt had been made on Hitler, in which some of his relatives had been implicated.
"The goal of all design is to make a whole from the variety."
[NOM]
