Bernhard Gothic is a family of geometric sans serif typeface designed by Lucian Bernhard

Lucian Bernhard

Lucian Bernhard was a German graphic designer, type designer, professor, interior designer, and artist during the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, on March 15, 1883, as Emil Kahn to a Jewish family, but changed in 1905 to his more commonly known pseudonym...

 in 1929 for the American Type Founders (ATF)

American Type Founders

American Type Founders was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States...

. Five variations by Bernhard were introduced over two years:

• Bernhard Gothic Light (1929)
• Bernhard Gothic Medium (1929)
• Bernhard Gothic Light Italic (1930)
• Bernhard Gothic Heavy (1930)
• Bernhard Gothic Extra Heavy (1930)

A final member of the family, Bernhard Gothic Medium Condensed, was introduced by ATF in 1936, but it is unclear as to who the designer was.

Bernhard Gothic is more organic and less regular than other geometric sans-serif typefaces, including Futura

Futura (typeface)

In typography, Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933...

, Kabel

Kabel (typeface)

Kabel is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by German typeface designer Rudolf Koch, and released by the Klingspor foundry in 1927. The face was named to honor the newly completed trans-Atlantic telephone cable...

, and Twentieth Century

Twentieth Century (typeface)

Twentieth Century is a geometric sans-serif foundry typeface designed by Sol Hess for Lanston Monotype as a competitor to the successful Futura typeface, but with a larger x-height and more even stroke width...

, showing influence of Bernhard's earlier more expressionistic faces.

Digital Copies

Digital copies are available from Elsner+Flake

Elsner+Flake

Elsner+Flake is a trademark used by German type foundry originally called EF Designstudios but later renamed Elsner+Flake Type Consulting GmbH and is currently based in Hamburg...

, Font Company, URW++, Berthold

Berthold

Berthold or Bertolt is a Germanic given name, from berht "bright" and wald "rule".-People with the given name Berthold:*Saint Berthold, 12th century, founder of the Carmelites*Berthold, Duke of Bavaria*Berthold of Garsten, 12th century prelate...

, Spiece Graphics, Monotype Imaging and FontHaus.