# Plakatstil / Sachplakat

> The German 'object poster' launched by Lucian Bernhard's Priester match poster and printed by Berlin's Hollerbaum & Schmidt. It strips the advertisement to a single product rendered in flat, saturated colour and the brand name in bold hand-drawn letters on a plain ground, so the message registers instantly from a passing tram or across the street.

- Period: 1905–1920
- Where: Central Europe
- Origin: Berlin and Munich, Germany
- Branch: Pictorial & machine age
- Also known as: Sachplakat, Object poster, German poster style
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/plakatstil/

## How it works

- Show only the product, or one emblematic figure, isolated against a flat, plain ground.
- Reduce the text to the brand name, hand-lettered large and heavy.
- Use two to four flat, saturated colours with no modelling, gradients or background detail.
- Simplify the object to its characteristic silhouette with crisp edges.
- Eliminate decorative borders and scenery so the poster reads in a single glance.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (defining)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (characteristic)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (defining)
- [Generous white space](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/generous-white-space/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Blackletter](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/blackletter/) (occasional)
- [Condensed display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/condensed-display/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Grain & noise](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grain-and-noise/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Flat vector illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-vector-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (characteristic)
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (characteristic)
- [Rational & objective](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rational-and-objective/) (characteristic)
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (occasional)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)

Avoids: Abundant decoration, Floral & vegetal, Whiplash line, Horror vacui, Eclectic mixing, Collage & layering, Straight photography, Gradients

Palette: #efe5cf, #151515, #d2382b, #24418f, #e3b23c, #2f5d3a

Typefaces: Lucian Bernhard's hand-drawn block lettering, Block (Hermann Hoffmann, H. Berthold, 1908), Bernhard Antiqua (Lucian Bernhard, Flinsch, 1912)

Known for: Lucian Bernhard (Priester matches, c. 1905–06); Hans Rudi Erdt (Opel, 1911); Julius Klinger; Julius Gipkens; Ludwig Hohlwein (Munich); Hollerbaum & Schmidt, Berlin (printers); Das Plakat (journal of the Verein der Plakatfreunde, 1910–1921)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Belle Époque Lithographic Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/belle-epoque-poster.md) (1866–1914)
- Influenced by: [Art Nouveau](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-nouveau.md) (1890–1910)
- Influenced by: [Vienna Secession](https://stylogeny.com/styles/vienna-secession.md) (1897–1918)
- Led to: [Hungarian Revolutionary Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/hungarian-activist-poster.md) (1912–1919)
- Led to: [Basel Object Poster (Swiss Sachplakat)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/basel-object-poster.md) (1919–1955)
- Led to: [Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/turkish-republican-graphics.md) (1925–1960)
- Led to: [Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/israeli-state-modernism.md) (1934–1974)
- Led to: [Polish Poster School](https://stylogeny.com/styles/polish-poster-school.md) (1950–1990)
- Alike in its design choices: [Leningrad Avant-Garde Picture Book](https://stylogeny.com/styles/soviet-picture-book.md) (1922–1936), 76% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [French Post-War Visual-Gag Poster (Savignac, Villemot, Morvan)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/french-gag-poster.md) (1948–1979), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Atelier Populaire (May '68 Screenprint Poster)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/atelier-populaire.md) (1968), 66% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [UPA & Cartoon Modern](https://stylogeny.com/styles/upa-cartoon-modern.md) (1944–1960), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Turkish Modernist Poster & Graphic Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/turkish-modernist-graphics.md) (1959–2000), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Ukrainian Wartime Graphics (Saint Javelin, War Stamps and Be Brave Like Ukraine)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ukrainian-wartime-graphics.md) (2022–present), 59% alike

## Real works

- [Opel](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hans_Rudi_Erdt_(1883-1918)_-_Opel.jpg): Hans Rudi Erdt, 1911, Christie's sale (image via Wikimedia Commons); another impression is held by MAK, Vienna (PI 1599)
- [Bonaqua; alkoholfreie Erfrischungsgetränke](https://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/objects/145468): Julius Klinger, before 1910, Albertina, Vienna (DG2003/538)
- [Kupferberg Gold](https://sammlung.mak.at/de/collect/kupferberg-gold_59846): Julius Gipkens, 1912, MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (PI 3663)
- ["Das ist der Weg zum Frieden – die Feinde wollen es so! Darum zeichne Kriegsanleihe!"](https://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/plink/?f=1-108079): Lucian Bernhard, c. 1917 (the archive gives only "between 1914 and 1918"), Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (J 151 Nr 2186)

## Sources

- Philip B. Meggs & Alston W. Purvis, Meggs' History of Graphic Design
- Jeremy Aynsley, Graphic Design in Germany 1890–1945 (2000)
- Neue Galerie New York, 'German Advertising Posters of the Early 20th Century' (neuegalerie.org)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Plakatstil / Sachplakat”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/plakatstil/