Rolf Erik von Bruun (born 7 April 1926) is a Finnish graphic designer.

Biography

Bruun was born in Viipuri on 7 April 1926. He spent his childhood in village of Säiniö on the

Karelian isthmus The Karelian Isthmus (; ; ) is the approximately stretch of land situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva. Its northwestern boundary is a line from the Bay of Vyborg to the we ...

. In the war years his family was forced to move to

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, where he later enrolled in the Central School of Industrial Design. He graduated as a graphics designer in 1950. After graduation, Bruun worked for three years as an exhibition designer and advertisement artist. In 1953 he founded his own design studio, where he produced the most of his work. Bruun's works are diverse and numerous. They include posters, postcards, stamps, and most notably all of the reverse sides of the last ever series of the Finnish Markka

banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...

series from year 1986. In the early days of the new banknote series, Bruun and his wife were visiting

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. They needed to exchange Finnish Markka notes to

Swedish krona The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the currency of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use for the krona; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it but, espec ...

, and had some of the new Markka notes with them. The cashier, never having seen the new notes before, asked if they were genuine. "Of course they are", replied Bruun's wife, "my husband drew them himself!" In his work, Bruun mostly features the Finnish nature in all its richness and beauty. Particularly prominent motives include the marine eagle, the Saimaa seal and the bear. The Saimaa seal is the symbol of the Finnish nature preservation association, whose 1974 logo Bruun designed. His posters and designs for the soft drink brand Hartwall Jaffa are also famous. Bruun also submitted a proposal for the design of the

Euro banknotes Banknotes of the euro, the common currency of the eurozone (euro area members), have been in circulation since the first series (also called ''ES1'') was issued in 2002. They are issued by the national central banks of the Eurosystem or the Eur ...

, featuring various kinds of animals. This proposal was rejected in favour of Robert Kalina's proposal featuring European architecture.

References

External links

Lusto exhibition in 2001, featuring Bruun's work (page in Finnish)

Bruun, Erik
at ''Uppslagsverket Finland'' (in Swedish). {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruun, Erik 1926 births Living people Artists from Vyborg Finnish graphic designers Finnish poster artists Currency designers