Who

Paul Malmstrom—the art director half of the advertising creative team known as The Swedes—is co-creative director of advertising boutique Mother. His partner is copywriter Linus Karlsson.

Backstory

Karlsson and Malmstrom met in school in Sweden, and Malmstrom was the first to go to work for startup agency Paradiset in Stockholm. Karlsson joined him a few months later and the pair worked together for six years before being lured to the U.S. by Fallon Worldwide, an ad agency in Swede-friendly Minneapolis. They later transferred to the New York office, working on campaigns for Diesel jeans and MTV before co-founding the U.S. office of the London hot shop Mother, along with Andrew Deitchman and Rob DeFlorio, in 2003. They've since hatched creative schemes for the likes of Chipotle, Dell, Milwaukee's Best, the NBA, and Target. Memorably, their 2006 commercial for Virgin Mobile, "Hardcore Nursery Rhymes," featured toddlers trashing a Brooklyn townhouse. They worked on the ad with @radical.media, the production company run by Jon Kamen.

Personal

Malmstrom lives on Norfolk Street with his dog Frankie. Karlsson used to live around the corner on Rivington, but has since retreated with his family to Tarrytown.