20TH CENTURY DESIGNER
THAT INFLUENCES
MODERN DESIGNERS
TODAY
BY LOUISE BAYNTON
OLLE EKSELL
Olle Eksell a Swedish born graphic designer and illustrator, He was born in 1918 in
Kopparberg. At the age of 14 Olle, decided that he wanted to become an advertising
illustrator. During WW II from 1930 to 1941, Olle studied illustration and graphic art in
Stockholm where his main teacher was Professor Hugo Steiner-Prag.
Olle Eksell was considered a pioneer in graphic design, Sweden had certain design
traditions to do with advertising such as how a layout of a poster would look, Eksell
pushed the boundaries of the design concepts in sweden and brought in new ideas
heavily influenced by western cultures that he experienced.
He then went onto work at the Ervaco advertising agency in Sweden where he met his
future wife, Ruthel Eksell.
In 1946 The couple went to LA, where they continued their studies into the field of
graphic design at The Art Centre College of Design in Los Angeles, the year after world
war II ended they took this trip as before bordered were restricted on travelling.
Little known fact about Olle Eksell is that he was fascinated and loved drawings birds,
they were frequently featured in his works and thousands of sketches of birds by the
time he died.
He wrote several books among them was a book called Economy=design which I have
ordered, the book talks about the connection between good design and a countries
economy.
1940S SWEDISH
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Because a lot of the references I had taken from books,
promoted Olle Eksell as having a really different direction
with his advertising designs I wanted to look at another
Swedish advertising/poster designer to compare the different
styles that were being used in Sweden at the time.
ANDERS BECKMAN
Beckman, Anders (1907-1967) Reallly famous
advertising poster designer, was really the biggest
leading graphic designer
Most famous before Olle Eksell for founding the
Beckman's college of design in Stockholm Sweden, He
graduated in Industrial design from a design school
called Teniska Skolan which was later renamed
Konstfack in 1930.
The same year he started up his own Advertising ferm,
which received work from such organisations as ABA
Aero transport( some of his most famous advertising
posters), National museum of Stockholm, etc.
During the World war , he designed a number of
humanitarian action posters, he sytle was very similar to
a lot of movements in graphic during this time in
sweden.
his style is a lot more bold, block colour with a heavily
edited and graphic feel, where as Olle Eksell is really
colourful, with a playful essense to the overall feel, he
has a more hand sketched feeling to his work.
OLLE EKSELLS WORK
Olle Eksell’s graphic design and illustration
style is beautiful and like no other I seen, how
he uses slender proportions of the body to
distort the line play.
his characters look like doodles drawn on a
napkin while visiting Paris while sitting in one
of its many café’s, because of the elongation in
some of the limbs Eksell uses it creates this
simplified stylised sleek way of drawing giving
Eksell’s characters and flow of the page
something a little bit more hand drawn feeling.
His colour choices are simple and use very few
colour combinations but there colour choices
usually clash or are pastels but are always very
bold.
OLLE EKSELLS WORKS
AND WHY I CHOOSE HIM
Eksell’s designs and ideas were ahead of their time, very
simplified and not overly detailed giving a very modern
contempary feel to most of his works. his illustration style still
holding a sort of endearing feel, helped along with the use of
some collage in his work, along side stylised pencil/pen
strokes like it would be very much suited for children's books.
The form he gives to his figures is commonly slender with the
use of geometric shapes worked somehow such as pointed
triangle shoulders with a thin slender body that consists of 4
pen strokes on the page, giving it the feel of a French artists
café doodles work not Swedish.
In one of the first books I read researching Eksell it said
Picasso described one of Eksell’s magazine covers to have
referred to modern painting styles at the time, so you can tell
he was really trying to push the boundaries of modern graphic
design in Sweden.
I just like how even though his font choices and style of
drawing form is really simplified and contempary he still uses
bold colours like red and yellow against back, it doesn’t have
this cold feeling that some other contempary and modern
artworks give off when I analyse them.
ARE OLLE EKSELLS
DESIGNS STILL USED
TODAY?
Well yes, Olle Eksell did designs for hundreds of
swedish owned publications. Olle Eksell’s CACAO
eyes became so iconic people recognise the design
before realising it was designed for a company
called Mazetti which is a Swedish confectionary
company that makes chocolate. I actually found
several articles online stating that they recognised
the poster and then researched the origin
afterwards.
The cacao eyes poster has heavily been adapted
into modern interior design and can be found in
many peoples front living rooms or kitchen.
He also designed countless front covers for book
companies such as Bonniers, Wahlström &
Widstrand, Nordstedts, and Kooperativa Forbundet
of which, some are still printing the books in the
orginal covers Eksell designed for them.
I also found several illustrators and designers that
work in the style of Olle Eksell, its not hard to find
because his design ideas and illustrations.
Something that stood out to me the most when I
was researching Olle Eksell is that IKEA the home
design store actually have a range of products
drawn by Olle Eksell and his illustration designs,
idea have featured them in a collection of
householdwares that are still available from idea
today.
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/olle-eksell
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/collec
tions/29029/
IKEA ÖNSKEDRÖM
(TRIBUTE TO OLLE
EKSELL)
ÖNSKEDRÖM collection is the result of a dreamcollaboration with one of Sweden’s most prominent graphic
designers Olle Eksell.
this line of home products bring his playful spirit and
charming illustrations on products that many people use
every day This new collection is mainly about three different
motifs by Olle Eksell, each with a sweet story behind. His
illustrations appear on a range of products from small
artcards, coasters, trays and mugs to larger rugs, bedlinen,
metre fabric and posters.
Some of the illustrations they chosen for the line of products
were most of Olle Eksells bird illustrations which is a good
quality of the products because it really says something
about him as a designer.
BILBOGRAPHY
• https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=1940s+swedish+graphic+design&biw=1345&bih=597&source=lnms&tbm=isch
&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMImpyVk7zlyAIVxrgaCh0XyAef#tbm=isch&q=1940s+swedish+posters&imgdii=
5ad4_xHRHayQJM%3A%3B5ad4_xHRHayQJM%3A%3BcHRGTiEXahl8NM%3A&imgrc=5ad4_xHRHayQJM%3A
• http://story.ljungbergsfactory.com/collections/anders-beckman/
• http://www.olleeksell.se/
• https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=artists+who+work+in+the+style+of+Olle+eksell&biw=1345&bih=597&source=l
nms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIz5KznJ3lyAIVCjsaCh0yEwJm#imgrc=_KLZe5VxIQyQpM%3A
• http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/collections/29029/
• Graphic design 201th century(2003)Purvis w. Alston, Le coultre F. Martijn
• Pioneers of modern graphic design, A complete history (2008) Aynsley, Jeremy, Beazley Mitchell
• Ikea 2015 annual catalogue