The JAnte Law

The Jante Law (with a lowercase a) is a set of rules in the village Jante, taken from the Danish novel En flyktning krysser sitt spor (“A fugitive crosses his tracks”) by Aksel Sandemose, published in 1933:

Don’t think you’re anything special
Don’t think you’re as much as us
Don’t think you’re wiser than us
Don’t convince yourself that you’re better than us
Don’t think you know more than us
Don’t think you are more than us
Don’t think you are good at anything
Don’t laugh at us
Don’t think anyone cares about you
Don’t think you can teach us anything

Even though the rules stem from a fictional novel, they have had a huge impact on Scandinavian culture (in the past) and could almost be considered part of the definition of many things Swedish, Danish and Norwegian (such as being neutral or not standing out).

In the spring of 2010 Konst & Teknik (K&T) were asked to contribute an image representing the studio for a feature in issue No. 14 of Graphic Magazine. K&T wanted to take something that actually represented their way of thinking at the time — good and/or bad — and decided to remake the Jante Law by changing all the don’ts to dos. K&T called the image “The JAnte Law”, in an attempt to question their Swedish heritage and in order to see these rules from a new perspective.

A few months later K&T got in touch Hagelsrums Handtryck, a wallpaper printer that prints with their own stunning colors on original brown wallpaper paper. It seemed like a good idea to turn that image (slightly updated) into a proper poster, as K&T couldn’t resist the metaphor of turning something that sits in the walls (of our culture) to something that — literally — sits on those very same walls.

The typeface, Småländsk Antikva, is an ongoing interpretation of Nordisk Antikva, many times claimed to be the first properly Swedish typeface.