Futura

Im personally not opposed to Futura, but for some reason, have never really looked at it for any of my design worth thus far. I've always thought that the lower case r looked a little funny (like it rammed into a wall as it abruptly stops with a much smaller extension than other fonts), but for some reason it is also my favorite letter in the typeface.

I think that century gothic has a similar feel as futura and could be used as a substitute (it even has the same funky question mark (at least in the roman versions of the fonts). Any round sans serif font could also stand in place pretty well, such as helvetica, though I'm guessing that the author of this article could have some things to say about its overuse as well =).

This article, as well as Designing Under the Influence, I feel were pointing out a few common threads that I too am guilty of. Mainly experimentation and questioning are lacking.

Experimentation --- We as students and designers often find an answer to a problem that we have and magically it becomes the answer to every problem that we have. I know that I have a handful of typefaces that are my favorites and that I tend to stick to. Futura doesn't happen to be one of the fonts that I find myself continually turning to, but I am just as guilty with several others as the students mentioned in the articles.

Questioning --- We find our answers and then we blindly follow in the design process. We find what we think 'looks good' and then we never revisit that decision in the design process to see if it was actually an appropriate design decision. The author I think realizes that the average viewer in this world will have no conscious reaction to the often chosen Futura, but our designs should work to inspire more than just those with no understanding of the design world, but also others in our industry. With this in mind, it is to some degree our responsibility to push ourselves to discover, create, and recreate for the sake of the creative community, if not ourselves.