Erik Bruun is a Graphic Designer and Painter from Finland. He is most known for his hand painted advertisements and travel posters for Finnish International Tourism.
Bruun’s work mainly consists of large colourful paintings that advertise Finnish travel or food and lifestyle products but he also did some branding works and logo design. This is less known but was available to view at his exhibition in Helsinki.
In February 2020 I visited his 70th anniversary gallery exhibition in Soumenlinna Island Museum. I planed most of my trip on seing this exhibition since Bruun is the most influantial inspiration for modern Finnish Graphic Design.
Below is some examples from the exhibition that I think could carry over to my work in branding. My plan is to possibly create some posters by the end of the project that I could use to introduce the rebranding of the Helsinki Tram Network to the city.
In these posters I will try to gather some inspiration from Bruuns early advertisements from the 60s, I want my posters to be bright and inviting much like Werklig’s larger redesign of the city in 2017. I want there to be a lot of geometric shapes and patterns in this redesign to make the Tram Network seem more inviting to first time users.
Reflection
I believe looking into Finnish designs greatest Graghic Designer gave me perspective into how traditional graphics have shifted from mostly painted and illustrative works and have instead become more minimal with a limited colour pallet.
What I want to gather from Bruun’s work is his iconic use of colour and geometry in my work for the tram network. I feel that taking inspiration from those two factors can make the rebranding more inviting and fun for the people that have to use it.
Sources:
https://bruundesign.com/en/history/
https://cometofinland.fi/artist/erik-bruun/?v=f0aa03aaca95
Erik Bruun: Finnish Graphic Designer (Book)
Fred's FMP 