The history of East Germany has been a continuous subject of discussion but the history of its immigrants – contract workers, foreign students and political emigrants – is often ignored. These invisible immigrants came from Vietnam, Mozambique, Angola, Cuba and Chile to the German Democratic Republic with the hope of a good future. Initiated by Berlin Institute of Technology and Out of Focus (Berlin-based documentary film producer), the project Eigensinn im Bruderland (“Stubbornness in the brother country”) provides insight into the personal life of migrants in the GDR with well-written texts and videos. The website won Germany’s prestigious Grimme Online Award in 2020.

Designed by Susanne Beer of Zoff collective, the website is set in two typefaces that both have their roots in GDR.

PTL Superla was originally designed as Super Grotesk in 1932 by Arno Drescher, the typeface was redrawn as Super by Karl-Heinz Lange for phototypesetting in 1984. Ole Schäfer of Primetype collaborated with Karl-Heinz Lange to produce the digital version: the typefaces were redrawn and extended, and published in 2009 as PTL Superla.

JAF Lapture is based on Albert Kapr’s Leipzi­ger Antiqua typeface, released in 1971 by the East German foundry Typo­art. It has been digit­ized, exten­ded and redesigned by Tim Ahrens in 2004.

Millcut metal signs at HKB Hochschule der Künste Bern (Bern University of Arts), Berner Fachhochschule BFH (Bern University of Applied Sciences).

SchneidersLaden is the showroom of SchneidersBuero, “a place of electronic music”, carrying “hardware synthesizers, effects and sound processors, sequencers, almost everything for contemporary modular systems, interfaces and other devices for creative use with sound and music”.

The large banner that overlooks the vibrant Kottbusser Tor square in Berlin-Kreuzberg features two typefaces designed by local designer Verena Gerlach, PTL Vielzweck and PTL Tephe. Tephe — the one with the striking underline connection — is inspired by letters found on an East-Berlin tenant directory from the GDR times: the movable white plastic caps included a thick underline with which they could be fixed onto the wooden board.

When I was asked to design the covers for the Berlin based e-book publisher mikrotext I was thinking about a design concept that would fit for every new e-book to be published. So here we go: Each cover has a distinct image that relates to the author’s text. Then we have the wonderful typeface PTL Attention. It was made by Viktor Nübel who also designed the mikrotext logo. The type size is determined by the longest word in the titles of the two books that are published simultaneously every three months. Finally each cover is rendered in two RGB colours which are optimized for screen (like the green tone). For two years now we have done all mikrotext covers with this design system. I guess it works quite well. 

For this poster about German composer, violinist and conductor Louis Spohr, Moniteurs opted for a purely typographic solution. Lines from Spohr’s oratorio Die letzten Dinge (The Last Judgement) are set in Ole Schäfer’s PTL Manual Semi and a yet unidentified wide and heavy semi-slab. Client: Philharmonischer Chor Berlin