Finland VS. Sweden

Pagero Oy

Pagero’s game room mural is a classic story of Finland’s rivalry with Sweden.

Established in Sweden and now operating in Finland – Pagero is a company with 20 offices on 4 continents around the world. The commission was for a painting in a staff game room area situated in the company’s new offices.

I chose to work in a 70’s sports comic style and drew on Finland’s fierce Ice Hockey rivalry with Sweden for subject matter. There’s a real love-hate relationship between our two nations and Finland was the underdog in the sport for centuries. Recently Finland has enjoyed more favourable outcomes, so there was plenty of material to work with here.

The client threw themselves into this project and we enjoyed a great working relationship. I used real photos to sketch the characters out and arrange the composition, and the mural in fact features caricatures of Pagero’s country manager Toni, who stars as the victorious Finnish head coach and Pagero CEO Bengt who takes the role of his defeated Swedish counterpart. It was a lot of fun to do and sums up the company’s ethos that combines brotherly rivalry with a strong sense of comradeship to get it’s best results.

On seeing the finished piece, Bengt loved the mural so much he decided that all of the executive meetings in the office would be held in the game room:

”We were looking for this brotherly ”Finkampen” style rivalry solution to our offices. Setting Finland against Sweden creates a humorous competition between our country offices. The incredible visuals created by Patrik honouring old comics was that final touch we were looking for on our office walls. We have received rave reviews around the world regarding the hockey painting. Swedes have been extra happy with it ;) All in all, great project, timelines and promises were kept 100 %!”