Helvetica took Scandinavia by storm last weekend with special event screenings in Copenhagen and Oslo. Summer has definitely arrived in the Nordic countries: it was 80-90 degrees every day, and a celebratory mood filled the streets. For those of you who haven’t visited Denmark or Norway, the daylight in summertime lasts ridiculously long: in Copenhagen the sun sets at around 10:30pm, and in Oslo it was even later, it was still light out at midnight! Bizzare.

I got to Copenhagen after a red-eye flight from Newark and checked into my hotel, the Fox. You may have heard of this place, each room was decorated by a different graphic designer or artist. I rarely sleep on those overnight flights, so I was trashed and needed some rest. But when I opened the door to my room, here’s what I was confronted with:

Aside from the fact that graffiti and street art are over (more on that topic later), this wasn’t exactly the tranquil setting I was hoping for. I went back downstairs and asked for something “more chill” (this took a little translation effort) and ended up in a room designed by Rinzen where “the good spirits of sleep watch over this room, fluidly roaming the walls and ceiling. They grin deliriously, oozing good fortune, freedom and happiness.” Uhm… okay… at least it wasn’t bright red. Overall I like the concept of the hotel, the free breakfast was good and free wi-fi on their outdoor roof deck was even better.

We kicked things off with the Sweet Talk Copenhagen premiere at the beautiful old Grand Teatret cinema. A sold-out crowd of 325 Danes packed the place, and local design heroes e-Types screened a cool animated 5-minute font film to start the evening. Thanks to Simon and Casper at Sweet Talk for organizing, and big thanks to Tiger for the huge refrigerator of free beer.

Kicking it with Jens and Jonas of e-Types.

And I’m officially adding Copenhagen to the “cities in Europe I could definitely move to” list… I ended up missing my flight to Oslo the next morning (by a mile). Those Danes can drink, let me tell ya.

I headed east to Oslo for the Grafill Summerparty premiere, held in another great space, an old converted factory called Fabriken. The Norwegians laid out a tasty spread of fresh boiled mini-lobsters, spicy grilled corn, boiled potatoes, and BBQ chicken for 200 people in an outdoor courtyard. After the film screening, the party moved indoors with DJs and more Helvetica (ugh), projected letterforms above the dance floor. At 2am everyone headed over to Blå, the alt live music venue across the river for more revelry, but I could barely keep my eyes open at that point. Thanks to Christian and everyone at Grafill for the hospitality.

A Helvetica summerparty in the blazing Norwegian sun.

The next day I had a chance to hang out in Oslo, where the entire city had turned out for a weekend street festival to kick-off the summer. I gorged myself on free fresh grilled salmon and laid on the grass in the park overlooking the harbor. Ahhh… Scandinavia.