Vivian Hartmann, director of Corporate Development of the RAED, explains the Catalan origin of the poster that Armstrong and Aldrin left in the Sea of Tranquility
Wolfgang and Vivian Hartmann
Vivian Hartmann, director of Corporate Development and Institutional Relations of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) and director of the Bauertypes typography company, explains how the types of Future typography on which the plaque text that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deposited on the Moon in 1969 was printed were founded in Barcelona at the firm headed by their father, Wolfgang Hartmann. The historical text, in capital letters and in English, reads “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind”.
The Futura typography was created by Paul Renner and first founded by the Bauersche Giesserei of Germany in 1927. The company, which obtained the exclusive rights of the Futura, was owned by Georg Hartmann. His son, Carlos Hartmann, directed in Barcelona the company Neufville Typographic Foundry, known for representing the main manufacturers of printing machinery in Germany, but also for melting the same types as those of the Bauersche Giesserei.
At the beginning of World War II, because countries in conflict with Germany had banned the importation of products from this country, it was agreed between father and son that the Future would be founded in Neufville Type Foundry and exported from there to the United States. Therefore, the Futura types acquired by American printers came from the Spanish company. In 1963 Wolfgang Hartmann, son of Carlos, would take over the direction of Neufville Typographic Foundry, which years later was consolidated as Bauertypes. His previous training at the Bauersche Giesserei allowed him to know in depth everything related to type foundry. He continued to maintain international relations with all the actors in the sector through the International Typographical Association, of which he became vicepresident.
Many prestigious brands adopted the Future founded by Neufville for their advertising campaigns: Volkswagen, Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Massimo Vignelli, Shell… It had been the favorite typography of Stanley Kubrick, who in 1968, a year before the arrival of the Apollo 11 to the Moon, presented the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”. The film inspired those responsible for engraving the text on the Moon plate, although Futura was already used in the United States Army for printing labels placed on instruments that needed to be very readable.
