Bernhard was influential in helping create the design style known as Plakatstil (Poster Style), which used reductive imagery and flat-color as well as Sachplakat ('object poster') which restricted the image to simply the object being advertised and the brand name.

He moved to Berlin in 1901 where he worked as a poster designer and art director for magazines.

[4] His posters, following Plakatstil, allowed for a clear and direct message to the audience that bolstered nationalism through depictions of the current enemy in a "them versus us" mentality.

In Germany, Bernhard's typefaces were initially favored by the Nazi Party, but were later banned under the mistaken assumption that he was Jewish (largely due to his Jewish-sounding birth name).

[6] Emil Kahn was born in Cannstatt, now a district of Stuttgart, Germany, on March 15, 1883.