My photos of this Scandinavia booklet don’t really do it justice. My heart skipped a beat when I found it and opened it up, because it really is more than just a brochure. It was designed to show off different grades of Champion paper to professional printers, under the guise of a guide to Scandinavian design. And so, there are all kinds of illustrations and photos by some of Scandinavia’s top talents, on a variety of different papers. There are die cut pages, there are foldouts, there are even a couple of pockets – one with a map inside and one with a guide to every single element of the booklet.
Here are a few pages of interest, along with some of their notes from that guide:
Our cover is a reproduction of an original abstract tapestry by an exciting young Norwegian artist, Elisabeth Hjelle. (She says)”I am very bound to the nature and climate from where I come. It is up in the northwest part of my country. The nature is always shifting. Great contrasts everywhere … rocks, mountains, lots of water … very intense colors, black and white, foggy grey and violet.”
Above you can see the pockets holding the guide and the map (the map was designed by Dan Jonsson of Stockholm) on either side of a yellow textured page of 17th century street signs:
Most of the signs we see today depend on words to convey their meaning. But words were meaningless to all but a privileged few until the 19th century’s mass education movements began to teach others how to read. Prior to that time, signs had to communicate with a kind of pictorial shorthand.
Vikings! Of course! A Viking mask, a Jelling Runic stone and prow of a Viking boat. And:
Jet Vikings go places their namesakes never dreamed of. Many planes in the present day Scandinavian airlines system are christened with viking names. Hence, Leif Viking, Knud Viking, Hjalmar Viking…
The mail is delivered with style. A visitor to Scandinavia finds it difficult to take the mail for granted – because the postal system is not only efficient, but brings a sense of style to that most ordinary of commonplaces, the mailbox (…) As for the letters that are dropped in these handsome boxes, the Scandinavians seem to have a feel for simple, elegant letterheads and envelopes.
The last great wilderness in Europe lies above the Arctic circle in Norway, Sweden and Finland. This is where you wait for a family of Elk to cross the road in front of your car … where the midnight sky is sunlit in July and still glowing like grey silk in August … where the Lapps tend their herds of reindeer.”
Just a small part of a long fold out pastiche of different Scandinavian buildings. Each one of these buildings is explained fully in the guide.
A longer (but still not full) version can be seen on Flickr here and here .
The last page I am going to highlight is an illustration by Jane Bark. Hurray! Finally someone from the times with a real internet presence! Not surprising, when she is described everywhere as one of Sweden’s most renowned illustrators…
Oh, in case you were in any doubt, yes, this book is for sale…
And although I would first like to tear out a few pages and frame them,
I promise,
I won’t!
Filed under: Century Finds, Check It Out, Color and Form | Tagged: champion papers, denmark, finland, illustration, mid-century, norway, photography, scandinavian, sweden | Leave a Comment »
