Ib Antoni: In 1963, when the sculpture of The Little Mermaid, situated in the harbour of Copenhagen, was about to celebrate her 50th anniversary, The Tourist Association of Copenhagen (Wonderful Copenhagen) chose Ib Antoni as the designer of the official jubilee-poster. Ib Antoni was a highly productive artist, and we are so lucky to have a rare amount of archive material available - much of which has never been shown before: Meticulous sketches from old school books, work correspondences across the Atlantic with the comments of Victor Borge in the margen of Antoni's sketches, letters of thanks from the Royal Family – and a lot more. With a subtle grip Antoni caught the essence of an assignment and neatly wrapped in the message, in a way that to this day feels timeless and modern - and continuously inspire advertising designers all over the world. The demand for the Antoni stroke came from all over the world, and he only had customers such as Shell, Unicef, Volvo, Life Magazine and Neiman-Marcus. In Denmark he was called the ”national illustrator of Denmark”, because his posters with The Little Mermaid, Tivoli and Copenhagen were - and still are - a part of creating the narrative and of the native country and the national brand, that attract visitors from all over the world. A narrative of great and clean-cut designs and the love of fairytales taken straight out of a H. C. Andersen adventure.

When he died in a tragic fire, only 44 years old, the papers called him "world-famous" and "the greatest in his field”.