Axel Bertram

Life Axel Bertram was born on Dresden and grew up in Freital, a small industrial town a short distance to the south of the city. His father was a graphic artist and businessman. After successfully completing his schooling he undertook a one-year apprenticeship in technical drawing during 1954/55. That was followed by a move to the capital and a five-year study period at the Academy for Fine and Applied Arts (as it was known at that time) in Berlin-Weißensee. Here his principal tutors were the poster artist Klaus Wittkugel and the graphic artist Werner Klemke. He was also taught by Arno Mohr and Ernst Vogenauer. He received his degree in Graphic Arts in 1960, and for the next twelve years worked in Berlin as a freelancer.

In 1972 he returned to the Weißensee Academy for Fine and Applied Arts as a "chief assistant" and in 1973 accepted a position as a lecturer. He became a party member in 1977. That same year he was promoted to a full professorship in fonts and graphic design at the academy, also serving, between 1977 and 1982, as Head of Department in Commercial Art. During and after the changes that led in 1990 to German reunification, Bertram returned to his salaried work at the Weißensee Academy, between 1989 and 1992 again serving as Ordinary (i.e. full) Professor in fonts and graphic design. Other magazines he designed or redesigned included the mass-circulation weekly news magazine, "Neue Berliner Illustrierte", the relatively short-lived news magazine "Profil" and "Wochenpost", the country's most successful and, many believe, most influential weekly publication. It was for "Wochenpost" that his radical (famously "computer aided") redesign incorporated, as early as 1970, a layout featuring a small margin column down on side of pages displaying articles.

In 1969 East German citizens found a new design for the 20 Pfennig coin in their change, designed by Bertram to replace the widely disparaged 20 Pfennig light-weight "Alu-Chip" (coin). ("Alu-Chip" was East German slang for the light-weight coins used in East Germany (and elsewhere in central Europe) during the 1950s and 1960s, having been designed in the late 1940s, when there was still a world-wide glut of aluminium, following a collapse in demand for fighter planes.) An "Alu-Chip" was not a pioneering prototype computer chip. He also teamed up with the pioneering industrial designer Rudi Högner to redesign the East German 1 Mark and 2 Mark coins which were issued respectively in 1973 and 1974, and both remained in circulation till 1990. Prompted in part by the very restricted range of typefaces commonly applied by publishing houses in East Germany, he designed bespoke typefaces for "Sibylle* and "Neue Berliner Illustrierte", and also designed typefaces for typewriter machines. He also designed the "Rabenau" font.

A number of sources pay tribute to Bertram's habit of worrying away at improving his designs: "Rabenau" represented the culmination of approximately thirty years spent intermittently working away at perfecting his typeface designs. The appearance of mainstream desktop publishing during the 1990s afforded opportunities for further elaboration and enhancement.

Between 1979 and 1982 Bertram designed thirty stamps for Deutsche Post of the GDR the post office of the German Democratic Republic depicting poultry, dolls and, both historic and mechanical toys.

Alongside his artistic work, Bertram wrote various essays and articles on the history and theory of commercial art. Other topics on which he wrote included the role of design in daily life. There were also numerous biographical summaries concerning individual designers. a cultural history of printing and typefaces during the Gutenberg era.