Typography, 3rd Assignment, Part 1: Historical Connections (The Great Depression, The New Deal, and the Futura typeface)

Even if America experienced an economic boom during the early 1920s (usually referred to as the Roaring 20s), the country also experienced a severe recession the moment the stock market crashed in October 29, 1929. However, it was not only the stock market crash that initiated the Great Depression. There was an overexpansion of the American economy: many companies produced too much products that Americans did not really need. As a result, there was a rapid decrease in employment. To make matters worse, since the country was undergoing a technical change, machines replaced people when it came to jobs. As the amount of occupations pummeled down, so did the number of factories. Herbert Hoover, the president at the time, was unable to fix the problems of the recession – he was just unable to appease struggling Americans with his Rugged Individualism philosophy.

It was not until Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s rise to presidency that America’s economy began to pick up again. He and his administration launched the New Deal program – a grand plan that was designed to grant jobs to unemployed Americans. Overall, the program focused on promoting relief, recovery, and social reformation (notably known as the Three R’s). There were numerous administrations, acts and commissions that were formed to carry out FDR’s restoration plan. One of the most effective strategies that he came up with was the Social Security Act, an act that established unemployment insurance. It also acted as a supplement to the pensions of Americans. The American economy steadily began to stabilize again – it experienced another economic boom once World War II ended during FDR’s presidency.

The typeface primarily chosen for the third project is Futura. As an article in Wikipedia exclaimed, it is a typeface that has an appearance of “efficiency and forwardness.” According to an article on the website Typophile, the it was designed by Paul Renner between 1927 and 1930 (coincidentally, it was a period in time when the Great Depression occurred in America). While designing Futura, Renner was temperamentally minimalistic – this explains why the distinguished typeface is geometrical and sans serif in form. Futura visually appears to be a typeface that represents the purpose and function of the New Deal Program, which is stability. Moreover, the typefaces that were used to design posters during the 1920s in America strongly resembled Futura. This typeface is definitely suited to narrate and explain the events of the Great Depression for the book project.

SOURCES CITED:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_(typeface)
2. http://typophile.com/node/12494
3. American History Class notes

NOTE: Information on Futura was derived from two websites (#1 and #2). Information on the Great Depression and the New Deal were derived from history class notes (#3).