“The Priester Match poster is a watershed document of modern graphic design, or rather, proto-Modern design. Its composition is so stark and its colors so startling that it captures the viewer’s eye in an instant. Before 1906, when the poster first appeared on the streets of Berlin, persuasive simplicity was a rare thing in most advertising: posters, especially, tended to be wordy and ornate. No one had yet heard of its young creator, who, thanks to this poster, was to influence the genre of advertising known as the Sachplakat, or object poster.” (Print Magazine)
“Over the course of his career, which progressed from the turn of the century to the 1950s, Bernhard became a prolific designer not only of innovative posters but of trademarks, packaging, type, textiles, furniture, and interior design. From his studio in New York City (he left Berlin in 1922), he developed some of the most recognizable American business advertising and trademarks, for such clients as Cat’s Paw, ExLax, and Amoco. He also designed more than thirty-five popular display typefaces, including Bernhard Gothic.” (Print Magazine)
"The method which he defined, and the style that ultimately emerged, was predicated on an unadorned, bold-outlined centered representation of the product being advertised... placed against a flat color background... The lettering was reduced to a few words, usually the brand name alone. The object... grabbed the attention of the passerby as it aesthetically and unambiguously hawked its message. The virtue of this invention was that viewers didn't have to navigate through tedious selling copy, confusing graphics, or other visual distractions. The image was clear, concise, and downright pleasing to the tired eye" (Design Literacy, p. 239).
A study of German commercial graphics. This bound edition printed in 1927 is an important study of a great era of German graphic design : posters, packaging, advertising, book illustration, programs for theater, sports, etc. Profusely illustrated, mostly with tipped-in color plates of work by Bernhard, Hohlwein, Klinger, Preetorius, Gipkens, Kleukens, Cissarz, Pechstein and many others.
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