Welcome to a K3 seminar with Gunnar Krantz, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication, K3. The title of the talk is:

The Co-Operator – A Comic about Advertisement in the Swedish Co-Operative Movement.

It will take place on Wednesday, February 7, at 10.15-12.00 in room NIC 0541 (K3 Open Studio), Niagara.

Here is an abstract for this talk:

Researching the influence of functionalism in the Swedish cooperative movements advertising in the late 20s and early 30s using comics as a method of structuring material and creating a narrative.

The Swedish Co-operative movement (KF) – one of the most successful co-operative movements in the world – had an enormous influence on Swedish society in the 20th century. Part of this success was due to its early embrace of modernism – especially functionalism in architecture. With KFs network of Konsum-stores (around 4000), strong economy during the depression, belief in rationality and an outspoken mission to educate members to become conscious consumers (kooperatörer), KF had both the infrastructure and muscles to reach out and influence. Many of the ideas KF introduced are things we now take for granted. KF opened the first self-service store, introduced membership with refunds (loyal customers) and launched own brands such as Cirkelkaffe and Luma. Through the ad-agency Svea, run by my grandfather Knut Krantz, the modern way of advertising was presented with colourful posters and campaigns. I have investigated his contribution by using comics as a method of organizing material and thus creating a narrative – a comic called Kooperatören.