Born 1883 as Emil Kahn in Cannstatt, German graphic designer, type designer, professor, interior designer, and artist Lucian Bernhard was influential in helping create the design style known as Plakatstil (Poster Style), which used reductive imagery and flat-color as well as Sachplakat (‘object poster’) which restricted the image to simply the object being advertised and the brand name. He was also known for his designs for Stiller shoes, Manoli cigarettes, and Priester matches.
Posters designed by Lucian Bernhard in the 1910s
Though Bernhard studied briefly at the Akademie in Munich, he was largely self-taught. He moved to Berlin in 1901 where he worked as a poster designer and art director for magazines. In 1920, he became a professor at the Akademie der Künste until 1923, when he emigrated to New York City.
In 1928, Bernhard opened the Contempora Studio with Rockwell Kent, Paul Poiret, Bruno Paul, and Erich Mendelsohn where he worked as a graphic artist and interior designer. In Germany, Bernhard’s typefaces were initially favored by the Nazi Party, but were later banned under the mistaken assumption that he was Jewish (largely due to his Jewish-sounding birth name).
Later in life, Bernhard worked primarily as a painter and sculptor until his death in 1972. Here below is a set of impressive posters designed by Lucian Bernhard in the 1910s.
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