Thing of the Month February is a ‘Sterni’ – the long-established and today all the more popular beer from the Sternburg brewery, which was founded in Leipzig in 1822.
These two bottle labels can be seen in the current special exhibition “Commercial Design instead of Applied Art?”, in which over 100 exhibition-cardboards from the 1910s show contemporary advertising art and commercial prints. The cardboards were part of a 1910s touring exhibition, intended to convey modern design possibilities and to promote “taste education in all social classes”. It shows a stringent development from Art Nouveau to more objective and modernist concepts.
The two juxtaposed labels, the previous and the new design, show a reduction of the bottle label to a clear and simplified aesthetic. The star, which is still – in red – the iconic trademark of the brewery, is more presently placed in the centre of the label and lends the beer brand, which is specially known from Leipziger and Berliner ‚Spätkaufs‘, its recognition value.
“Commercial Design instead of Applied Art?” extended until 11 March 2019.
