- Visual identity
- Art direction
- Illustration
- Photo edit and manipulation
- Web development
My work as an in-house graphic designer at Seinäjoki City Theatre included creating the visual identity with a focus on designing a consistent visual language for all the plays, managing the look through seasons 2012–2017 and building a website on WordPress. This scalable, versatile and recognizable visual system was well adapted and is still in use — after 2017 I’ve continued working closely with the theatre on a freelance basis. The promotional images presenting actors are done every season in collaboration with the house photographer Jukka Kontkanen.
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Photographer
Jukka Kontkanen
Client
Seinäjoki City Theatre 2012–2024
- Concept
- Visual identity
- Magazine layout
- Magazine production
- Project management
- Web design and development
- Article editing
Kulttuurilehti Ilmiö is a magazine covering artistic and cultural events of the city of Seinäjoki: theatre, music, visual arts, museum and literature. The challenge was to create a scalable visual and thematic concept that would gather all the different fields and events into a solid, logical but fun to read magazine. The concept was also requested to be somehow linked to Seinäjoki’s slogan, which is ”Avaruuden pääkaupunki”, ”The Capital of Space”. (Just to clarify, Seinäjoki quite literally has a lot of space.)
The project was managed, designed and carried out by me from concept to both a paper and an online magazine. The magazine is now being published twice a year, and is distributed free of charge to all the inhabitants of the whole province. It has found its audience well, especially as a physical publication.
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Client
The City of Seinäjoki & Art Seinäjoki Network
2019–2023
Concept
ART
Art is refined expression of human imagination. Art can as well be a physical object as, for instance, some theatrical, musical, literatical or interdisciplinary piece. Whether art imitates nature or consists of abstract elements, it’s created to be perceived and interpreted by an observer.
The subject can be approached by reviewing the senses needed for observing the piece. Art can be experienced in several ways: a painting is seen, a book is read, a composition is heard, a play is seen, heard, smelled or even felt. No matter what the medium, art evokes sensations and feelings, which lead to an interpretation.
INTERPRETATION
As something meaningful, a piece of art needs an interpretation. All art can be interpreted, and every interpretation is a chance for a different conclusion. No matter what the conclusion, a piece of art is perceived as a meaningful phenomenon.
PHENOMENON
The magazine’s name Ilmiö means ”a phenomenon” in Finnish. A phenomenon is something that can be experienced through the observers senses, just like art needs a perceiver to interpret its meaning. When people gather together, it’s also a phenomenon, whether it be a concert, exhibition, performance or any other event. No matter what it is, a phenomenon can be experienced. A phenomenon is something unusual, interesting and meaningful.
Symbolism
LIGHT
Light can mean immediate feeling and experiencing. Light connotes as well to creating, knowledge as realization. In numerous cultures our main source of light, the Sun, symbolises immortality, which can refer to art as a way to reach immortality, as art can live on after the artist has passed.
STAR
A star is an appealing and extremely common symbol in numerous cultures. Stars twinkle inspiration and realization, and they are truly creators: they create energy, light and life.
PENTAGRAM
A pentagram is a five-pointed star, a closed figure that can be drawn with one stroke. Nowadays it’s usually linked to occultism, but it’s an ancient symbol which can be found from the Egyptian hieroglyphs, Christian iconography, alchemy and the symbol of the Pythagoreans, just to name a few.
The dimensions of a regular pentagram follow the golden ratio, which has undeniable importance not only in mathematics, but also in aestethics and art.
A pentagram has a beginning and an end, just like art: art begins as an idea and ends to the interpretation of its perceiver.
A pentagram also symbolises microcosm, the inner cosmos of man. The idea of macrocosm and microcosm reflecting one another originates from Ancient Greece, more specifically Pythagoras. The concept travelled through the writings of Socrates and Plato all the way to the Renaissance, when alchemy was becoming popular.
The European alchemy was not only about the transmutation of more common metals into noble ones, but more and so a philosophical theory about refining and perfecting the human soul and the connection of microcosm and macrocosm. Alchemy recognizes the classical elements of the Ancient Greece: earth, water, air, fire, and the fifth element aether – the element from where all spiritual and creative actions originate and thus of course art as well – and the symbol of these five elements is a pentagram.
GEMSTONE
Gemstones are hard minerals, that can be cut and polished: like art, they are carefully crafted and refined. A gemstone doesn’t shine on its own, not until light pierces it, just like (yes, you guessed it) art needs an observer to decode its meaning.
Icons
There’s a symbol for each cultural field with which every page is marked: visual arts, literature, theatre, music and museum. Under each field there are subcategories to indicate what kind of an event the article is about: painting/sculpture/photography…, novel/poems/philosophy…, musical/comedy/drama…, classical/jazz/rock…, exhibition/educational and so on.
The basic idea for the subcategory icons is about what sense is needed to interpret the piece of art or event. The visual system can however be used in more concretical way as well, if it illustrates the subject better.
All icons are paired with titles for clarity.
Colors and graphics
Each issue has one main color. The color system consists of three shades of the same color: light, medium and dark, which can be used in combination with black and white to create structure and tension to each issue.
Typography
Ilmiö 1/2019
Poster Campaign
- Visual identity
- UI + UX design
- Icons
Visual identity and UI + UX design for an online ticket platform.
Client
NetTicket
2020
UI design
Concept
The visual identity and the site layout are based on this basic idea of a perforated ticket. I designed a new logo to go with the new look, but the client decided to keep their old one for practical reasons.
Typography
The circle shapes are repeated both as decorative elements as well as in the typography itself.
Colors
Icons
- Visual identity
- Web design
Koskenkorvan Trahteeri is a place for extraordinary events, enjoyable saunas, summer bed & breakfast at the traditional farm and a very special museum dedicated to the small Finnish village’s pride, Altia’s Koskenkorva spirit plant. The visual identity was renewed along with the generation change of the family owned business.
The website was developed by Mikko from Mikrogramma Design.
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Client
Koskenkorvan Trahteeri Oy
2018
The Indentity
The word ”trahteeri” is traditional Southern Ostrobothnian dialect. It means ”a place, where the guests are regaled exceptionally well”. The challenge was to create an identity, that would combine their four services: the saunas, the bed & breakfast, the event venue and the spirit museum.
The main elements of the visual system are fire, water, a roof and a cup, all overlapping and linked together.
Fire
Fire is needed for heating the sauna, cooking for the guests, warmth for a good night’s sleep and even the distillation of spirit. Fire cleanses, warms, illuminates and creates – it connotes concepts of vitality, nourishment and rebirth. It’s the stove, the heart of the house and the light in the Finnish summer night.
Water
When the fire symbol is reversed, it becomes the symbol for water. It rinses the dirt, it’s the giver and maintainer of life – the basic element for all life. It’s the counterpart for the fire. Like fire, water also links to all the four areas: in the sauna, it’s thrown on the hot rocks that are heated with fire. It’s also used for making food and it’s the base ingredient of spirit.
Roof
The roof is an obvious reference to the bed & breakfast.
Cup
The cup is meant to carry the thoughts to both the Koskenkorva spirit and regaling.
