http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Renner
http://www.typophile.com/node/12191

"Paul Renner : The Art of Typography" by Christopher Burke (includes a lot of Renner's published writings)

Aye, I have the two links bookmarked already. The book isn't an option because I live in Australia and shipping would take almost a month from amazon (my uni course finishes by then).

Are there really no other books on him?

If Google is a good indication, it's not looking good for you.

If you are seriously interested in Renner, there is no way around reading Christopher Burke's book. What about your university library and interlibrary loan? As to "the socio-economic conditions of his time", you may need quite some additional literature too. If you professor has such high expectations, perhaps he can give you some pointers at how to get at the relevant books.

There are copies of the Burke book in libraries in Australia (I know it's a big country, but there might even be some near you).

http://www.worldcat.org/title/paul-renner-the-art-of-typography/oclc/397...

You might be interested to know we released a book in french about the Futura typeface two weeks ago.
An exhibition is also open in paris at the galerie anatome until the 23rd of July.

Futura
Une gloire typographique

Published in french by Éditions Norma, 2011
Written by Alexandre Dumas de Rauly and Michel Wlassikoff with a foreword by Étienne Robial.
21 x 27,5 cm
192 pages
around 400 color images
45€
ISBN : 978-2-9155-4239-4

With the help of the Centre national des arts plastiques, ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.

Facebook fanpage and infos

Selling page
http://www.editions-norma.com/Livres/Arts-decoratifs-l-Design/Futura-une...

Created by the German artist and typographer Paul Renner, the Futura typeface enjoyed an unprecedent commercial success from its publication in 1927 by the Bauer type foundry. To this day it remains one of the most widely used typefaces in the world in every domain: advertising, publishing, signage, corporate design, etc.
Futura’s rigorous construction and functional design raised the status of the principles of modernism in the field of typography. It is associated with photography just as it was beginning to be defined as a new vector of communication and as an art. Futura made the golden days of the “photomontage“ and responds to the dictates of typo-photographic composition as advocated by Moholy-Nagy. Even though it doesn’t come from the Bauhaus, it became the emblematic typeface of the school of Dessau as those of Bayer and Albers. Described by the Bauer foundry as “the type of today and tomorrow” it looked like the perfect modern typeface to Jan Tschichold, Kurt Schwitters and Ladislav Sutnar, who used it widely throughout the 1930s, while Gebrauchsgraphik magazine chose it as its text typeface and it became the exclusive typeface of the Gesellschafts und Wirtschafts Museum of Otto Neurath in Vienna. Distributed under the name “Europe” in France by the Deberny & Peignot foundry, it is the flagship typeface of the eponymous Studio allotted to advertising photography, while it inspired Cassandre in his quest to develop a new style of lettering.
The Nazis formally imposed a return to blackletter letterform but the german exhibition at the Milan Triennal in 1933 showcased the Futura typeface. In 1941, blackletters were forbidden in favor of roman typefaces, the Futura being designated as one of the best among them.
The « typographic heresy» of the national-socialists somewhat soiled its reputation and the one of its designer but the post-war economic boom and the advent of the international typographic style soon positioned Futura as the paradigm for the geometric lineals that would dominate graphic design, particularly in the domain of corporate design.
In Europe, Volkswagen and IKEA are outstanding and lasting examples, and Max Hüber installed it on the façades of the La Rinascente department stores. Its in the United States — where modernism have found refuge and where it was in use since the end of the 30’s — where it earned its letters of nobility thanks to its use for the Sweet Catalog Files by Ladislav Sutnar, and thanks to the work of Bradbury Thompson and Paul Rand. Then, its adoption by NASA for the Apollo space program reasserted the original proclamation of Bauer: "Die Schrift die Welt erobert" set as the type of space conquest.
This astonishing evolution didn’t escape the attention of Stanley Kubrick in his vision of 2001: A Space Odyssey and he utilized Futura in the credits and marketing materials for several of his films (notably Eyes Wide Shut).
With such global success, Barbara Kruger utilized it in the register of contestation and detournement, in the 1970s and 1980s; while the continued scope of its use can be seen, for instance on the advertising screens of the French and European TV channel Canal+.
Futura has experienced an upsurge in interest over the last few years, notably in the corporate identities of the Seattle Public Library by Bruce Mau, of the Barbican Gallery in London by Cartlidge Levene and the Studio Myerscough, of the Musée du Jeu de Paume by Change is Good, and of 104 by Experimental Jetset.
Finally, it remains a major reference for typeface designers, from Herb Lubalin to Christian Schwarz, from Adrian Frutiger to Erik Spiekermann, who faced their skills against its forms to develop original typefaces (Avant-garde, Avenir, etc.) or interpretations mainly intended for corporate identities (Volkswagen).
A book relating the story of the futura typeface is a real historic retrospective, showcasing many never published or really rare materials.

Very nice. I have such irrational book lust.