Berlin Sans is a wonderful and unorthodox typeface designed in 1994 by David Berlow and assisted by Matthew Butterick. It is very distinctive, has a storied history and is widely available. It was designed as a multi-purpose, catch-all that has passed the test of time and the changing of fashions. What’s not to like?
Be warned: This article will run rough-shod over typographic history
Although Berlin Sans is a new, modern and digital face, it is a re-imagining of a much earlier design, Negro, by a German emigré to New York, Lucian Bernhard. As a form of shorthand, and to reflect the modern availability of Berlin Sans, this article will run rough-shod over typographic history by describing the biographical details of Negro’s designer, as the progenitor of the modern font, whose details will in turn be discussed. It is after all, due to Lucian Bernhard that the font ever came about. It will also refer to both fonts as Berlin Sans as the glyph shapes are so alike. Once again, this is due to the fact that to purchase the font for digital use, you would be seeking Berlin Sans.
Equally so, in discussing Lucian Bernhard, The Inquisition does not mean to belittle David Berlow’s work on this beautiful font. Simply put, the genus for this lettering can be traced back to Bernhard’s design output and its lettering forms. That is the story to be told.
Other early twentieth century German printers’ jobbing fonts have been digitised. See Erik Spiekermann’s Berliner Grotesk as an alternative, with perhaps more personality but less flexibility.
Lucian Bernhard's very stylish, stacked signature
Lucian Bernhard (1883 – 1972) was a self-taught graphic artist, painter, type- and industrial-designer. He was born as Emil Kahn. Throughout his life he disliked speaking of the past, even to his children, meaning there is much speculation about his exact biographical details. It seems the most plausible reasons for the name change was either a reaction against his father or a prescient move in the face of growing anti-semitism in Germany.
During the First World War Bernhard worked for the German government in the production of propagandistic artworks.
Lucian Bernhard's winning Priester poster
Bernhard’s breakthrough moment came when he entered a competition to design a promotion for Priester matches. The money offered was very little, but times were tight and he had a name to make for himself. In the end he won not just the competition but also ongoing work from the marketing company who oversaw the competition.
Bernhard’s initial Priester design was a complex Jugendstil piece; Germany’s take on Art Nouveau, and the bleeding edge style of the time. At a friend’s suggestion he started to simplify the over-wrought work, initiating a process he knew as “addition by subtraction”.
The judges decided that the final work, a gaudily coloured writing of the company name and two accompanying twigs of matches was heinous. They threw it in the bin and moved on. Luckily for Bernhard, and indeed twentieth century design more generally, one of the executives from the marketing firm who was sent to oversee the competition saw the binning taking place. He rushed over, retrieved the artwork and admonished the judges by proclaiming the winner to be found. While many thought this simple poster too stark, too modern, the executive’s vision changed German design.
The Priester story was later told by Bernhard himself, so it may well be apocryphal.
Lucian Bernhard's Informative Functionalist poster for Adler Typewriters
Lucian Bernhard's Informative Functionalist poster for Bosch Sparkplugs
Lucian Bernhard's Informative Functionalist poster for Ranniger Gloves
Lucian Bernhard's Informative Functionalist poster for Stiller Shoes
The train of his career was set in motion. This style became known as Informative Functionalism. The artworks became known as Sachplakat or “object-posters”. The influence of the orient, and in particular the iconic simplified and refined forms of Japanese woodcuts, is plain to see. The product was illustrated to look desirable and the message was a simple word association between the producer’s name and the aspirational image. This is a very similar conceptual approach to Apple’s today.
The new style became synonymous with Bernhard. His stylish, stacked logo can be seen inscribed on many of the posters. These were early days for the graphic design profession. Being relatively novel the producers could sign their work like fine artists.
The adoption of Informative Functionalism was echoed in the prevalence of Bernhard’s direct artful hand-lettering style throughout German design of the time. Foundries clamoured for these robust faces and a new career avenue opened for the designer. He went on to create an extensive list of diverse typeface designs:
A selection of fonts by Lucian Bernhard
In 1932 Bernhard upped sticks and moved to a USA that was not ready for him. His work was not well-received in a reprise of the German reticence from the early days of his career, it was felt to be too extreme, too harsh, in essence too modern. He began to move toward fine art. His paintings were very similar to Edward Hopper’s as he reacted to his new American life.
Catnap - painting by Lucian Bernhard
This article was posted by Ronan McDonnell on
Sunday, December 11th, 2011 at
11:43.
It is archived in America, Art, Culture, Design, History and tagged Culture, Design, design history, germany, History, type, typography.
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