The versatile artist Germund Paaer began his architectural studies at the Polytechnic Institute in Helsinki around 1906. However, advanced maths caused him some problems and his wandering spirit took over.
Paaer’s interest in ethnology took him to museums in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Estonia, where he studied ethnology and industrial art material.
He had a tremendous interest in Finnish handicrafts. For instance, at the beginning of the 1920s, he travelled around Finland collecting embroidered blankets. Paaer later donated the blankets and other pieces of craftwork he had collected to the National Museum.
Having married and settled down in Helsinki, Germund Paaer began to draw regularly for companies such as Ab Koru Oy, Weilin & Göös, Suomen Kuvalehti and Otava. He also worked for the Paragon printing house for many years.
The newspaper advertisements Paaer designed for Paragon can be regarded as quite unique, since he was among the first to let his humour show freely in his work.
In 1926, Germund Paaer began teaching at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, where he worked for the rest of his life. During his career as a teacher, he gave further proof of his versatility when he published his renowned book ”Tekstaustaide” in 1933. This book was for a long time required reading for typography students. Germund Paaer was also Kalevala Koru Oy’s first jewellery designer.
