The Poster Hunter Story

As soon as we found our first poster in a dusty archive, we knew that we one day had to offer re-prints of these graphical masterpieces. Because these posters deserves to once again get into the limelight. It simply is a different experience to enjoy them as they were meant to be enjoyed: As big, colourful, tempting pieces of art.

As Poster Hunters we have dug for both posters and facts. We have found posters all over the world, for example in the Library of Congress in Washington, in the Poster Museum in Lahti and in private collections in USA and Norway. The list is long. The posters we hunt can pop up in the most odd places. And that is the charm of being a Poster Hunter.

Our quest for facts has put us in libraries and archives for months. But it was worth it. Thanks to many great Finnish sources we got an understanding of how the early Finnish advertisement industry worked. But the greatest thing was sitting down with artists who could tell about the good old days.

Here are some pictures from our hunt:



A rare picture from the Brage press clip archive showing artists at work during the 1930's.



A happy moment for poster guru Professor Erik Bruun: Magnus Londen shows two posters from the 1950's by Bruun that he thought were lost forever.



Picture from the industry magazine Mainosuutiset (1960's) of a P.O Nyström poster. Unfortunately we have not managed to find a copy of the poster. But a Poster Hunter never gives up!



Golden nugget: A beauty by Juha Anttinen is located in the archive of the Finnish Aviation Museum.



Party time: When it was time for the release party we of course invited the artists we had met during the project. Here artist Lasse Hietala (left) studies the book with his old buddy Professor Erik Bruun.



Magnus Londen digging for facts in the Åbo Akademi archives.



The first phase of the project is coming to an end: In May 2007 we had located most of the posters. Then it was time to get the Big Picture by spreading out miniature pictures of all posters. Magnus Londen (left) och Ant Simons at work.

Want to see more pictures? Please visit our virtual exhibition.