Mazetti, Paul Rand and AGI: The International Career of Swedish Graphic Pioneer Olle Eksell
Olle Eksell (1918–2007) was Sweden’s most celebrated graphic designer of the 20th century — a pioneer who brought American modernist influence into Swedish visual communication and, in doing so, defined what corporate identity design could look like in Scandinavia.
He is best known for the Mazetti Ögon eyes, one of the most recognised pictograms in Swedish design history.
Education and the Road to Los Angeles
Born Carl Olof Lennart Eksell in Ål, Kopparberg, in 1918, he decided at the age of 14 that he wanted to become an advertising illustrator. Between 1939 and 1941 he studied illustration and graphic art in Stockholm under Professor Hugo Steiner-Prag at the School of Book and Advertising Art. He later worked at the Ervaco advertising agency in Stockholm, where he met his future wife, fashion designer Ruthel Günzberger. In 1946 the couple sailed to the United States to continue their studies at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles — one of the first Swedes to study there in the postwar years.
Paul Rand and the American Connection
In the US, Eksell came into contact with the leading American graphic designers of the era, including Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig and Lester Beall. A close friendship developed between Eksell and Rand that lasted throughout both their lives, built on shared ideas about the relationship between concept, aesthetics and economic function. In 1952, Eksell was admitted as a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) in New York — a significant recognition at a time when Scandinavian graphic design was just beginning to be seen internationally.
Mazetti and the Ögon Eyes
Back in Sweden, Eksell’s most significant commission came from Mazetti, a Swedish chocolate and confectionery manufacturer based in Malmö. In 1956 he designed what became known as the Ögon Cacao eyes — a bold, abstract pair of eyes that formed part of Sweden’s first comprehensive corporate design programme. The image boosted the product’s sales and became a Scandinavian design classic. The original eyes remain visible on the façade of the former Mazetti factory in Malmö. Today the Ögon motif is reproduced on trays, prints and other objects and continues to be sold internationally.
Design = Economy
Eksell articulated his design philosophy in the book Design = Economy, in which he argued that aesthetic and economic principles are not in opposition but mutually dependent. The book — which he also authored in Swedish as Design = Ekonomi — brought together his thinking on corporate identity, visual communication and the social function of design. It remains a reference point in Swedish design education.
Recognition and Legacy
Eksell received the Advertising Association of Sweden’s Platinum Egg in 1985 and was bestowed the title of Honorary Professor by the Swedish Government in 2001. He was selected among the 100 best graphic designers internationally by the Japanese magazine IDEA, and a monograph of approximately 400 works was published in Japan. He was also a member of the world jury of typography at the International Center for Graphic Arts in New York. Eksell continued to work until his death in Stockholm on 11 April 2007, aged 89.