The Platinum Egg 1985: Per-Henry Richter.
Per-Henry Richter was born, probably screaming, in Malmö in 1928. After an early journalistic career at the tabloid Kvällsposten, John Melin talked him into starting at Svenska Telegrambyrån at the dawn of the 1960s. Here, the boisterous Skåne native, his palpable plumpness draped by a striped bricklayer’s blouse that flapped in the breeze above his trousers, was exiled to an office in the cellar where he would not disturb the others. Art Director Lars Hall paints a vivid picture...: “Per-Henry was a small and pointedly funny person who wrote such bloody great stuff. But he could be cruel. ‘Good morning, mediocrities!’ he bellowed in a broad Skåne accent every morning when he came to work.” As he put it himself, “My speciality is my big mouth.” Indeed, Per-Henry Richter was so verbal that he was included in the first episode of “På Minuten”, a radio programme modelled on the BBC’s “Just a Minute” that premiered in 1969. Per-Henry is among the foremost advertising writers in Sweden, with a distinctive, quick, instantly recognizable prose style. He would rewrite his sentences a hundred times at a furious pace with just two fingers, eventually boiling it all down to five sentences that said exactly everything about beetroot or porter ale. He said, “Only the easy-to-understand can capture your attention. Only the clearly-designed can hold it.” In 1967, Per-Henry and several other capable creatives left Telegrambyrån to start Arbman 2 in Malmö. Here was where he wrote the immortal “Albin!” ad, about Boda Glasbruk, where venerable glassblower Albin Johansson was blowing glass chamber pots. One memorable line was, “People who have a privy in an outhouse know the value of a chamber pot under the bed.” Per-Henry stayed at Arbmans for the rest of his multiple award-winning career, creating fine work for DUX, Facit typewriters, Swedish State Railways, Fazer, Pripps, Semper, Findus and various other food and drink clients that were close to Richter’s heart … and belly. Strikingly often, his partners in creation were John Melin, Kurt Lundkvist, Johan Sten and Flemming Holst – all winners of the Platinum Egg.
After the Platinum Egg: Per-Henry Richter was one of the founders of the Advertising & Design Historical Association, established in 1996 with the mission of collecting and preserving Swedish advertising, now housed among the collections of the Landskrona Museum. In 2009, a selection of his work was exhibited at the museum. Per-Henry passed away in 2012.