Futura®100 ಕನ್ನಡ

The original Futura® was the ultimate in geometric sans serifs, reducing a design category to its most concentrated concept and form. Futura®100 is the epitome of minimalist geometric typefaces. TypeTogether has brought together a highly talented team of designers to create Futura®100 Kannada. The result is a typeface family that – thanks to close cooperation with Bauer Types – remains faithful to the original design intentions and retains a constructed but warm quality.

Shapes in Indic scripts cannot be reduced to basic geometric forms because they are inherently complex. Futura®100 Kannada’s design reframes how Renner’s work can be reinterpreted by focusing on the details. The focus is on reducing lettershapes to their essence and removing gestural flourishes. The conventional drop-like shape of the baala in aspirated letters like ಧ ಭ is  simplified, as are the complex forms of ಟ ತ ಶ. The talekattu, or crest on Kannada letters that represents the inherent vowel sound, is streamlined with a right angle. Ball terminals are omitted in ದೆ ವ; a closed circular loop replaces them in ದಾ ಣ. The design also features distinctive round counters, instead of commonly-seen petal shaped ones, that act as a shared motif within the Indic families. 

The flavours of Futura® and other modernist typefaces of the last century have seeped into the Indian lettering and graphic design landscape through globalisation and cultural exchange. Futura®100 Kannada is synthesised from these inheritances, while benefiting from direct access to Renner’s original designs. Streamlined shapes of the virama and ಾ based gunitaksharas, which are borrowed from street lettering tropes and speak directly to this multifaceted legacy, can be accessed through a stylistic set. 

Careful attention has been paid to the rhythm of horizontal proportions, one of the features that makes the original Latin design stand apart. Within the confines of what is agreeable in the script, Futura®100 Kannada echoes this by having considerable width variation in Light, which evens out to a more conventional cadence in Bold. Additionally, most ottus, or below-base conjunct forms, have been intentionally designed to function below the baseline to preserve tight intraword space and word shapes.

Futura®100 Kannada contains the rhythm of Renner’s original Latin design in the body of Kannada, making it an excellent resource for graphic designers seeking to localise international designs for the Kannada-speaking market, as well as for local designers looking to make use of Futura®’s modern, rational spirit. 

Futura®100 Kannada is available in six weights as well as a variable font. It joins 22 other scripts to serve more than 90% of the world’s population: Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Greek, Hebrew, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latin, Malayalam, Myanmar, Odia, PanAfrican Latin, Tamil, Telugu, and Thai.

What was new and disruptive for its time has now become a hinge upon which type design turns and graphic design rests. More than mechanical, Futura®100 is structural. It gives such strength and stamina to the text that it has lasted a century and, with this iteration, will remain in constant use by more designers worldwide for the foreseeable future.

About Futura®
Original design: Paul Renner
Copyright of the original design: Bauer Types
Copyright of Futura®100: TypeTogether (with authorization from Bauer Types).
Futura® is a registered trademark of Bauer Types. Used under license.