The earliest Berlin underground stations opened in 1902, many more followed during the first decade of the twentieth century. Several stations contain traces of Jugendstil, while stations built in the 1960s and 1979s are children of their time. Many of these very differently designed stations were intentionally preserved and reconstructed — their peculiarities did not vanish during the establishment of a new coherent signage and orientation system in the early 1990s. An underground ride through Berlin is magical: every stop reveals a world of its own. Several train stations feature rather unusual letterings that provided exciting sources of inspiration. Geometric constructions, especially more unconventional shapes such as a »t« with a diagonal terminal as well as that wide »z« had an impact on our designs.

While the lettering style of street names in West Berlin had been applied by silkscreen printing for decades, street signs in the East were milled in layers of plastic. This manufacturing process lent those letters their characteristic rounded corners — a feature also seen in Berlin Type. It was not until the mid-90s that Andreas Frohloff designed a new alphabet for a reunited Berlin. Today all three versions can be seen in the wild. A little later, Verena Gerlach and Ole Schäfer digitised the two originals now called FF CST Berlin West and East.

The Roaring Twenties are an era of economic growth and blossoming of art and culture in Berlin. During this time the city became a cultural centre, notable in fine art and literature as well as in architecture — not least in unique neon sign lettering. Some of these letterings followed the characteristics of art deco. This style preserves an elegant expression through selected materials, devotion to color and sensuality, and is most apparent in letterforms that feature either an extremely high or low waist: quite prominent in the low bowl of the »R« in »Reisebüro« as well as in »P« of »Kempinski«. To this day such letter extremes are connected to Berlin.

After reconstruction in the 1950s and 60s large billboards and letterings of Berlin brands marked the city-scape once more. Many of those were manually constructed or painted on the facade, lending them much character. The one-eyed »a« is rather prominent next to the condensed »s« in »karo as«, an ad on the corner of Kurfürstendamm and Uhlandstraße (1956), or the rhythm of wide and narrow letters in »Checkpoint Charlie« (1969): just have a look at the wide shapes of »C« and »O« side by side the more elegant and slim forms of »L«, »E« and »H«. Many of the impressive neon signs have vanished, but can be admired at Buchstabenmuseum Berlin.

↑ Currently the weights regular and bold cover all typographic basics.

↓ The recognition factor of the typeface and therefore with Berlin is essential. Certain characters lend Berlin Type originality and make it easy to identify.

Only when type is in use it really starts to live. Berlin Type is meant for a wide audience and ought to represent Berlin in all kinds of user interfaces (print and digital). Its contemporary look is present in its visual expression, in its scope and its overall performance. The regular and bold weights are available to all and can be downloaded for free from the campaign website: wir.berlin.