Letters from Helsinki

So this is a bit like sending a postcard after you’re already home, but for some reason, editing, imaging, and posting of photos during my recent trip to Helsinki just didn’t happen quite the way it did when I was in Berlin. 

While there was plenty of mid-century typography, there was a good amount of art nouveau style lettering, in keeping with the surprising amount of Jugendstil architecture to be found throughout city.

Keep these in mind when shopping for the carnivore who has everything.

Street names in Helsinki are posted in Finnish and Swedish.

Much thanks to whoever was responsible for this post office signage.

This was the carpet in the Hotel Klaus K.

While the words in Finland seemed ridiculously long to these American eyes, it was in Sweden that I spotted the awning, below, with the 28-character word.

According to the Google translation, “INGENIORSVETENSKAPSAKADEMIEN” means  “Engineering Sciences” which is even a mouthful in English. In Swedish, it’s one word plus 50% more characters.