An artistic advisor, a printer, a critic, a lecturer and above all a legendary typographer. Carl Fredrik Hultenheim (1928–2010) was born in Björnlunda in Sörmland and trained at the School of Book Production and the Graphics Institute in Stockholm. In 1953, he became a technical editor at the suggestion of Åhlén & Åkerlund, and later a graphics advisor to Esselte. From 1958 to 1961, he was an art director at Arbmans, at a time when the creative revolution had begun to take off in Sweden...Read more, inspired by DDB and others in New York. Art directors Kurt Lundkvist, Johan Sten and Ove Pihl all describe Hultenheim’s importance to the new advertising. He had introduced modern American advertising typography to Sweden. His posters and books Typflora (Kinds of Type) and Fotnoter (Footnotes) for the Typografen phototypesetting shop could be found at every Swedish advertising agency, and in time became collector’s items. Hultenheim was also an inspiration to new generations as a teacher at Beckmans from 1962–64, as a regular lecturer, and later with his own educational programme, Schola Antiqua. He was uncompromising in his approach to craft and quality. This made him a combative debater and advocate for typography as a democratic project serving the reader: “Typography should serve the word, not just strut about in the graphical trend circus.” One target of his public wrath was Lars Liljendahl, then an AD at Rönnberg. In the 1980s, he created a campaign for Swedish State Railways with trendy, widely spaced headlines. Hultenheim thundered out his dismay in the advertising magazine Resumé. Lars Liljendahl and Rönnberg replied with a paid full page in the same magazine consisting of four extremely widely spaced words: C a r l  F r e d r i k  H u l t e n h e i m ,  s p ä r r v a k t . (It’s a joke playing on the similarity of the words utspärrad, widely spaced, and spärrvakt, the guard at an underground station who checks your ticket and makes sure nobody jumps the turnstiles). Lars Liljendahl later took one of the courses at Schola Antiqua and declared “Carl Fredrik Hultenheim was a master.”

After the Platinum Egg: Carl Fredrik Hultenheim continued as a freelancer in all his many roles. He was made an honorary professor and granted a lifetime artist’s salary by the government.

– B.E.