Summer is calm with lots of sunshine and splashing in the water? That's correct! But if you are a poster hunter, it is so much more. If you are a poster hunter, the summer of 2022 was a hunt – on three fronts. First: It was a quest for an end. At an end where at some stage you get to tell the printing house to start printing. We worked frantically on our book ”Come to Norden”. The book consists of 320 pages with texts and images...

By ferry to Stockholm! It is difficult to come up with something more classic in Finnish travel history. And in the summer of 2022, there is an extra important reason to jump on board. Why? I will reveal that soon, but first a little background. As early as the middle of the 19th century, the first regular passenger ferries began to run between Helsinki / Turku and Stockholm. Poster art was involved right from the start. On factual text ...

This year spring really took its time. But now, finally, spring has sprung even in Finland! And that's why we have a poster treat for you. One can wonder what the spring in 1949 was like? Because that is when the artist Gunnar Forsström created five different Helsinki posters, and chose one of them as his entry to the big poster contest arranged for the capital's 400th anniversary. He chose well since his poster won! Helsinki – the ...

And finally the Poster Hunters can say ... Welcome to our brand new show! Our new travel poster exhibition lets you experience how early tourists were drawn to travel to and around the Nordic region, by way of steamboat, train or plane, between the 1890s and 1960s. Back then, illustrated travel posters were used as advertisements. Today, we see those same posters as pieces of art. In a time when the Internet hadn’t yet been invented, ...

A visual flight of fancy through the Nordic countries as envisioned in travel posters! This is what can be expected when our playful design exhibition opens at Nordiska museet in Stockholm. To put it simply: The poster hunters at Come to Finland are almost too excited. Our exhibition, that we arrange in co-operation with Come to Sweden, charts the way the Nordic countries made a place for themselves on the European tourist map. It was posters ...

Click to buy your favorite Lapland poster! Last month, the Poster Hunter stared at his poster collection. He was looking for the crackling colours of autumn. Although, in the 1950s, Finland liked to market itself either as the promised land of skiing (Finland for wintersports!) or as a summer country of happiness (Finland for holidays!), he found an autumn gem amongst the posters: Visit Finnish Lapland and its capital Rovaniemi! Oh, what...

In his previous life, the Poster Hunter was not fan of crayfish. Yes, to be honest, he avoided crayfish as much as he could. There was too much formality and too much tradition. How do you actually open up those damn crayfish? And what? So much struggle for such a small amount of food ...? And where are the lyrics to all these songs that people sing out very loudly? Buy the crayfish products here! Yes, the Poster Hunter actually enjoyed poster ...

It's finally summer! And your humble Poster Hunter has once again managed to combine his two favorite activities: traveling in Finland and collecting classic travel posters. So join the expedition now! Let’s start on the west coast of Finland, in the medieval city of Raumo. The poster hunter is like everyone else: he has been blind to all the beauty that is nearby. So he blushes with delight and pride as he reads UNESCO's motivations about ...

Two tired men are sitting in a room. They stare out into the emptiness, both listing seemingly random numbers in different languages. One of them is holding a gavel. Have they totally lost their grip? Are they confused? No. Quite the opposite! They have full control - and they are sitting on a treasure. A poster treasure. You see, this week your Poster Hunter was out hunting as usual and this time he was searching for classic Nordic ...

So Christmas is over and a new year has begun, and with that comes what we in Finland call Tipaton tammikuu! But what is Tipaton tammikuu all about? Straight translated it roughly means dry January. This is our version of sober October - you see, we Finns of course prefer to do this it when it's pitch dark outside. Are you thinking of joining in? Well, we have incredibly good news! This year you can celebrate your, or your friend's, sober ...

In our previous newsletter, the Poster Hunter left you with a cliffhanger: Where exactly is our iconic Champagne Lady from 1939, drawn by Jorma Suhonen, sitting? For those of you who are familiar with the center of Helsinki, you realize that there is something not quite right in this poster. There is not a single restaurant on Mannerheimintie - at that time know as Heikinkatu - where the Champagne Lady could sit and enjoy her fancy drink with...

The most iconic poster in the Poster Hunter’s collection is by far The Champagne Lady. This was the poster that started the whole adventure twenty years ago. The poster hung alone in the window of a Helsinki antique shop, just waiting for her savior. There and then, the Poster Hunter was born. But during all these years, this question has been bothering him: who is this Champagne Lady? The Poster Hunter knows that he has to get an ...

August – the International Holiday Month! Tourists from all over the world are flowing to Finland from near and far. Or as we can read in a brochure from the 1930s: “GLORIOUS, thrilling and healthy holidays can be spent in Finland” … Well, of course not this year. But so you can understand why Finland normally is such a popular travel destination, let the Poster Hunter shed some light on the matter. The Finnish Tourist ...

Sometimes the Poster Hunter leaves his beloved archive to go hunting. He is a hunter, after all. This happened recently when an auction house in France called for a poster auction with hundreds and hundreds of original, international travel posters. Among all these goodies the poster hunter had seen a true gem. There, in the middle of the catalogue was a poster, actually the only one, from Finland. The Ghost Lady. Our beloved ghost lady. In ...

Summer 2020 is here! So now, as the world traveler you are, you might be walking around dreaming about, let’s say, Berlin, Balaton or the Bahamas? Well, we all know that international travelling isn’t in the books for this summer. But instead, let’s think higher, better, and more exotic. Let me take you on a journey through the land that has it all – Finland. How, you may wonder? Every truly successful journey requires a traveling ...

You have probably noticed it at your post office, employees hauling bags filled with postcards? Yep, we have rediscovered a wonderful tradition. And no one is happier than me. Because, as a poster hunter, I know that many of Finland’s most stylish postcards are created by illustrators who worked both as poster and postcard artists at the time. In addition, our poster artists also knew that the images they painted by hand must always work ...

We only have two questions for you today: Do you feel like you’ve spent too much time in front of the screen lately? Did you know that we at Come to Finland have an art treasure that can be yours? Here is our recommendation: Put away your device. Forget Game of Thrones and Instagram for awhile. Instead, focus on your home and on how you can give it a completely new look by simply putting up some art. Already a single classic Finnish ...