How Berlin Writes
Why one Logo isn’t enough
One city, many typefaces – and why they belong together at the Berlin Museum
Have you ever noticed what Berlin looks like when you focus only on the lettering?
You move through the city and read it as you go. There is the clear signage of the Underground. A few streets away, an old illuminated shop sign hangs above a doorway. In between, a handwritten board stands outside a late-night corner shop. Somewhere else, a new piece of lettering appears on a utility box.
Berlin cannot be told in a single voice. And that is why it cannot be expressed through a single typeface.
Why we have more than one logo
When you look at our logos, you may notice that they do not all look the same. That is a deliberate choice. Each version combines two different typefaces, reflecting the contrasts and connections that shape Berlin.
In Berlin, different eras and ideas exist side by side as a matter of course. Our typefaces reflect that. They include historical forms, post-war modernism, contemporary designs created in Berlin and today’s digital experiments.
Many of our typefaces come directly from the city itself – from everyday life, architecture and specific places.
You can still find this style across Berlin today: on old shopfronts in Charlottenburg or on residential buildings from the 1960s, often as individual letters glowing after dark.
That was a characteristic approach of the 1970s: typography was considered part of the space.
The letters have a curved appearance because real neon tubes cannot create sharp corners. The typeface is built around that same principle.
It draws on this direct, fast and often imperfect visual language and brings it into focus.
You can still see traces of this aesthetic today on old forms and notices, whether in municipal buildings, workshops or back offices.
It combines these historical forms with contemporary digital tools.
You are more likely to encounter this attitude in temporary spaces – exhibitions, project venues and the nightlife around places such as Revaler Straße.
City Impressions from our Online Collection
These images show how lettering makes Berlin visible in the urban landscape. Most of the selected works date from the 1950s to the 1990s and can only offer a snapshot of the city’s diversity. They do, however, give an impression of how typefaces, signs and illuminated advertising have shaped Berlin’s streetscape, and of what has inspired us along the way.
What this means for us
For us at Berlin Museum, this is at the heart of what we do.
We do not present Berlin as a single, uniform image. We show the city as it is: full of different voices and constantly changing.
That is why we work with different typefaces. Each brings its own perspective, rooted in a particular place, moment in time or aspect of everyday life.
Our visual identity remains open. It allows for contrasts and continues to evolve, just as the city itself does.
We developed it together with the agency Stan Hema. Together, we created a design that makes visible what defines Berlin.
This is how many typefaces come together to form a single picture.