This being a digital age, our lives are suffused with fonts. Just about every word we read is set in a font crafted by an artist, a team of them, or even multiple generations of designers. But for the non-graphic designers among us, who mostly interact with font without a second thought, the medium’s possibilities may not seem particularly exciting.
Futuracha Pro is poised to change that.
Typing with Futuracha Pro, designed by graphic designer Odysseas Galinos Paparounis of Greek branding agency høly, is no static, predictable experience. That’s because the font responds to context, flipping between different letter designs depending on the makeup of a word. It’s chameleonic and mesmerizing to watch in action ― and the result can make anyone’s typing look like the work of a practiced designer.
The font itself, a fine-boned classic Futura embellished with Art Deco-inspired swirls, was inspired by an unlikely muse: the Caribbean cockroach.
Futura, Paparounis told HuffPost in an email, had become “something like an obsession” during his graphic designer studies. When he was tasked with creating a typeface as a class assignment, he found himself examining two Caribbean cockroaches he was using for an illustration class. Inspired by “the antennae and thorns on their feet,” he garnished the Futura framework with rounded spurs and swooping ligatures.
Thus was born Futuracha, a marriage between Futura and the “cucaracha” ― “cockroach” in Spanish. “One could say that Futuracha is a sans serif font that transformed into a serif one in a mood for exaggeration,” he told HuffPost.
Originally, the font ― which featured numerous variations of different letters to allow for optimized combinations ― was only available in a format that required individual positioning of letters in a graphic design interface. Thanks to a new crowdfunding push, that’s about to change with the launch of Futuracha Pro, an OpenType font that users can simply type with.
Futuracha Pro isn’t the first font to offer adjustments as people type, but it is a step beyond the usual. “Most fonts take advantage of ligatures and embellishments in an attempt for visual corrections,” Paparounis said. “Futuracha on the other hand, not only provides ligatures, but a wide variety of them to choose from. It places creativity beside functionality, play before instructions, experimentation before manuals.”
Designers and typography nerds aren’t the only ones who should have fun with fonts ― and with a magical type like Futuracha Pro, everyone can play along.
To check out the font in action, visit høly’s Indiegogo page.
