Designer Desire: Erik Bruun

Mosaic of Erik Bruun designs | H is for Home

Erik Bruun is a Finnish graphic designer probably best known outside of Finland for his Hartwall Jaffa orange drink ads and Finnair travel posters.

However, it is other designs altogether for which he is most famous in his home country. In 1986, he produced the designs for the current Finnish Markka banknotes. He also designed a 2011 Sampo Bank payment card in collaboration with the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation.

He went to the Central School of Industrial Design in Helsinki where some of his tutors included Kaj Franck and Tapio Wirkkala.

In an interview with Mr Wolf Magazine, he said he was given advice by the latter:

One should be passionate and inspired when starting a job. If you are not, then don’t start. Without passion, nothing exceptional is born.

You can purchase reprints of many of his vintage designs on his website.

Portrait of Erik Bruun

Here he is in a short film, putting the finishing touches on one of his Jaffa artworks…

Image credits:

Flickr | Pinterest

Designer Desire: Daphne Padden

Mosaic of vintage Daphne Padden poster designs

This week, we’re featuring the wonderful graphic designs of Daphne Padden (1925-2010) in our Designer Desire series.

‘Mr & Mrs Crownfolio’ have been writing about Daphne on their Vintage Poster Blog for almost 2 decades and it’s thanks in the main to them that something is actually known of her. The vast majority of the images in our mosaic have been borrowed from them. She’s highly underrated in their, and our, opinion!

Portrait of Daphne Padden painted by her father, Percy Padden
Portrait of Daphne Padden painted by her father, Percy Padden

She has produced work for the likes of The Post Office Savings Bank, P & O, British Railways, BEA, ROSPA and Unilever.

Her designs can be found on travel posters, food packaging and restaurant menus. We’re surprised that she never illustrated children’s books, her style is perfectly suited for that medium.

We’re lucky enough to have this single item of hers in our possession – a bright & bold poster produced for The Post Office Savings Bank advertising their investment accounts.

Vintage Daphne Padden poster for the Post Office Savings Bank | H is for Home

An archive of her work is held at my alma mater, The University of Brighton although, to date, none of it seems to have been uploaded to their website. Others can be found in the archives of some of the companies she worked for including The Postal Museum and The Marks and Spencer Company Archive.

You can often find a handful of Daphne Padden’s vintage works on eBay. If you get out-bid, quite a few places are currently reproducing some of her designs including Beast in Show, To Dry For, All Posters and Art.com.

If you have any information or examples of her work, please share – we’d love to hear from you.

Image credits

Vintage Poster Blog | Christies

Vintage Pat Keely safety poster

Vintage 'Keep Floors Clean' safety poster designed by Pat Keely for Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents | H is for Home

We featured a poster by Leonard Cusden in a recent post – and, as with the proverbial buses, two safety posters have come at once. Well, the same week anyway.

Vintage 'Keep Floors Clean' safety poster designed by Pat Keely for Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents | H is for Home

This one is by another renowned 20th century graphic artist – Pat Keely.

Pat Keely signature

This ‘Keep Floors Clean’ poster was commissioned by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents in the 1950s.

Vintage 'Keep Floors Clean' safety poster designed by Pat Keely for Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents | H is for Home

In addition to his work for RoSPA, Pat Keely was also responsible for some iconic World War II posters done for The Ministry of Information. There are public transport and GPO commissions too – he even designed postage stamps.

Vintage 'Keep Floors Clean' safety poster designed by Pat Keely for Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents | H is for Home

Here are some further images of Pat Cokayne Keely’s work. We love the orange ‘Wear your Goggles’ poster you’ll see there.

Detail of credits from a vintage 'Keep Floors Clean' safety poster designed by Pat Keely for Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents | H is for Home

As with the Leonard Cusden, this is an original vintage piece. We’re pretty sure that this particular poster image has never been reproduced so quite a scarce thing. It’s one for the graphic artist aficionados on one level, but also works simply as a decorative art work for the home. It would look great displayed on a kitchen wall – the imagery, colours and subject matter. There’s first refusal to our blog readers, so let us know if you’re interested.

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Danish Fortnight at Neiman-Marcus

'Danish Fortnight at Neiman-Marcus blog post banner

Vintage Neiman-Marcus Danish Fortnight poster detail

We thought that we’d take a closer look at the vintage Neiman-Marcus poster that we showed in yesterday’s Forthcoming Attractions post. As we mentioned, we’ve had this poster in storage for some time and have just had it framed. It looks fantastic!

Vintage Neiman-Marcus Danish Fortnight poster

It’s the work of Danish artist, Ib Antoni. He designed textiles, porcelain and lamps too, but it’s his posters for which he’s most famous. He was much in demand during his relatively short career. His list of clients is tremendous – from tourist boards to large manufacturing companies. Tragically, he died quite young in a hotel fire aged just 44. He’s much loved in Denmark and indeed worldwide. He left a wonderful body of work with over 300 poster designs and is one of our favourite illustrators.

Ib Antoni's signature

The US department store Neiman-Marcus developed the concept of special fortnights to promote sales in the quiet autumn period before the Christmas rush. They started in 1957 with French Fortnight. It celebrated the distinctive culture, cuisine and fashion of that particular nation. They were a great success and continued up until the 1980s. Danish Fortnight took place in Dallas in 1964.

Vintage Neiman-Marcus Danish Fortnight poster detail

This extract comes from a local newspaper at the time:

Dallas’ Neiman-Marcus will open its Danish Fortnight tomorrow with royal Danes and Great Danes in attendance. And if it’s anything like the fairyland Swiss Fortnight of last year, start wishing that your husbands will find some business in Dallas during the two-week event. The specialty store promises to bring the greatness of Denmark to visitors, dramatizing the Tivoli Gardens with its imaginative play settings for children, the works of Hans Christian Andersen, George Jensen silver and the finest art of the country–its contemporary furniture and needlework. Dallas will join Neiman-Marcus in the exposition with a Danish Street fair sponsored by antique shops, Danish films and Danish entertainers in Dallas supper clubs.Northwest Arkansas Times, Saturday October 17 1964

There would no doubt have been some wonderful mid-century modern homewares on offer!

Vintage Neiman-Marcus Danish Fortnight poster detail

Amazingly, we acquired more than one copy of this rare vintage poster at the time we bought them. So, we could send one rolled up in a tube – you could then choose your own frame and indeed framer – and it will obviously be much cheaper & safer than sending the glazed version. This original poster measures 88cm x 61.5cm. Our blog readers will get first refusal, so get in touch if your interested.