Style for all: LAINA
LAINA offers a platform for the flea markets to shine and brings them together to inspire customers with vintage items. The publication shows stunning ways to re-purpose old and new, and makes second hand items trendy and attractive also to people who usually wouldn't frequent flea markets – saving money and environment is of course a big bonus. This magazine wants to show you the markets from the angle of unique finds, that every item can shine and be high fashion in the right environment. The magazine aims to be available in all the collaborative stores and present in social media as well.
The name Laina is an elegant, nowadays more rare Finnish name that means borrowing – perfect for indicating finding potential in someone else’s old stuff. The slogan "Second hand, First class" represents the aim to upcycle items and find new meanings, to see with an eye for style.
A clean, minimalistic visual identity unites and attracts different style flea markets and their customers, neutral enough to leave room for the flea markets and stores to have their spotlight. With a slight quirk, the visual identity reflects the nature of flea markets and that a small spark can ripple things forward. In line with the publication’s purpose, it mixes and matches retro with modern elements.
Visual materials for an education pilot event: Elämysmuotoilu Pop & Hearts -edition
The aim for the concluding event for the short education pilot of experience design was to pique interest in potential recruiters to come see and experience the results of the pilot. The team was working with minimal budget, so I figured the visuals of the event needed to be bold and eyecatching. I was on the communications team, so I took it upon myself to design the visual identity for the event.
The core of the pilot itself was to ideate and offer experiences, and that translated to bright colours and interesting variety in the logo, which went hand in hand with the idea of bold visuals. Pink was decided among the team to be the refreshing theme colour amidst the gloomy November and the cool greens were used in relation to the pilot previously. I designed the attachments to the email invitations and modified the visual to fit also a Linkedin banner and the background visual in the event space.
Key element in the event was to present the new designers, so I organized a photoshoot to get proper and consistent pictures of everyone and edited the images of the participants for composite cards.
Encapsulating societal essays in magazine illustrations: LY
Lapin Ylioppilaslehti magazine was a magazine from students to students who are interested in current events in society and the university. The topics were often complex, so I wanted to convey that also in my illustrations for the essays and cover image. In all these cases I delivered a sketch of my idea for approval and then proceeded to finalizing.
The first image is for an essay depicting ideas of the relationships between people, nature and consumption from a philosophical standpoint, so I went for a slightly surrealistic feel for the illustration. Light colours balanced the heaviness of the topic and handmade brush strokes made it seem more approachable and reminded of people’s part in all of it.
The second illustration is a cover image for an issue released in the fall when new students roll in. I asked the chief editor what themes were going to be prevalent, since I wanted the illustration to cover them as well as possible. Key themes were community, points of view, technology and the university itself, which is how I ended up with a recording screen and in it a circle of humanoid characters all looking from their points of view the tree of knowledge, aka the university and all the different fruits it grows in different directions.
The third illustration was for an essay about trending girl aesthetics, especially the clean girl aesthetic, and consumerism. The main claims in the essay were that one must have money to be able to follow trends and fashion trends often target girls, so in the illustration I placed a girl in the traditional place of an older man’s head on bills. The surrounding imagery depicts global influence and means of validation.
Social media brand to a municipal election campaign: Ami Värtö
Environmental influencer Ami Värtö was looking for a graphic designer on her socials to help with her campaign visuals and I volunteered as I figured it would be a great way to gain experience designing for campaigns, and for a good cause. I worked in close cooperation with her and the team with succesful results: Värtö placed in a deputy position as a first time candidate.
The balance with information and clarity had to be carefully considered in the case of each visual depending on the audience, usage and how much time voters had to view them. Värtö’s existing social media brand offered a possibility for recognizibility, so I emulated some of the elements in the campaign visuals: her brand name was in handwritten cursive, so I chose a similar but more readable font for the similar sounding slogan, and watercolour texture for some backgrounds from the brand image. Main logo was bold sans serif for a modern and clear look. Forest green was a natural choice for the main colour, and Värtö liked the pink from the party guidelines which offered a soft contrast to the dark green and a link to the party. I designed the overall visual look of the campaign and several print and digital materials: flyers, stickers, a beach flag, newspaper and bus ads, a banner, posts and a storybase for socials.
Circular economy visualized: Kiertotalouslabra
Kiertotalouslabra is a learning environment running under the Turku University of Applied Sciences to find solutions to advance circular economy. I helped in various ongoing projects to visualize them and their results: logos, infographics, illustrations and other visual assets. The project I worked with the most was Merikartta.
The Merikartta project resulted in an ecosystem that was formed to connect professionals of different fields related to seafaring, and the purpose was to tackle environmental challenges of the seas. Purpose of the visuals was to make the project more tangible for everyone involved.
First design was the logo, which then expanded to a graphic guide, website layout design and several illustrations, each showcasing a particular set of environmental problems of seas around the world. Turquoise combines the blue of water and traditional enviromental theme colour green. The compass needle in the logo symbolises going in the right direction and the circle around it alludes to the round Earth and a life ring, which the project was aiming to be for seas.
Spotlight on artworks: LENTO
The Faculty of art and design staff of the University of Lapland hold an exhibition of their own artistic work every year with a different theme each time. The artworks and the event are documented in a catalogue, and before that, they need to be found. Naturally, the visual side of the poster and the catalogue should complement the theme at hand and fit both applications.
The exhibition’s name and theme was LENTO (FLIGHT), so my approach was with minimalism: lots of space, light colours, minimal elements and airy typography. These went also hand in hand with letting the artworks shine and visuals not fighting for the spotlight. On the covers of the catalogue, the elements flow seamlessly from back to front.
In The Name Of The Moon
Animated illustration
The Sailor Moon series is known for its pastels, roses and romance, which leave in their shadow the more grim side of the story: the cosmic powers bring with them an eternal battle against evil. For the iconic transformation this illustration is therefore brutalistic in its style to highlight the often forgotten side of the series.
In a combination the two resulted in a dark colour palette and realism in elements with texture and symmetry.
Capturing a theater production from start to finish: 1½ Astetta
LoimuSpeksi association produces theater plays each year mainly by university students and the visuals differ accordingly. Different themes in the play and different crew to make it happen. The crew consists of around twelve teams: actors, writers, staging, costumes, marketing etc. As the photographer of the production, I took photos of the production in different stages and organised photoshoots of the main character cast and the crew. Edited photos were used as promotional material for social media and the press.
1½ Astetta had themes of climate crisis and change so I implemented those into the promotional photos as well. Character and production team photos were two-part, and the teams were colour coded.
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