Creating visually delicious pieces of stories through Graphic Design.
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to work as an outer space professional? This is a theme explored at the Finnish Science Center Heureka's space-themed exhibition.
During my internship with Heureka's exhibition design team I had the chance to participate in the later design and production stages. At this point, the broad strokes of the visual identity had been designed by the chief graphic designer.
My most prominent work included the interactive exhibition object which offered insight into what it might be like to sustain yourself in a space station. We designed three dispensers for touch screens: a coffee machine, a food vending machine and a waste recycling station. I had the opportunity to learn about digital interfaces for exhibitions and about communicating interactive functions along with animation instructions to the programming company, while making use of my skills in vector graphics and layout design.
Other works during this exhibition were smaller needs for graphic illustration as well as design, print production and installment for all the exhibition's signage. This was a particularly significant task, as space stations might typically have many buttons and switches with different functions.
Beginning a new concept is perhaps one of the most exciting steps in creative work. I had the honor of learning about exhibition concept design during my internship at the Finnish Science Center Heureka. The up-coming exhibition is ice aged themed and features great mammal robots.
My main work consisted of creating various visual material which could unify the team's vision by raising and solving questions about the mood and functions of different elements. At times concept art was required, as no other reference could be found simply by searching online, or even imagined as efficiently by the current AI image generators. Other times internal communication as well as commucation with subcontractors was made easier with assisting images and visualised information.
For this particular project, the team immersed itself with the subject at hand through research and meeting experts. Principles from Design Thinking were applied by involving many people aside from the core team to the design process and working through several iterations.
Metropolia UAS's Product Visual Identity and Campaign Design course involved designing a visual identity for juice packaging and later a launch campaign for Karvonen, an organic juice producer.
The work began with research, benchmarking and drafting. It was important to understand the target audience and which elements would appeal to them most, as well as the technical aspects of printing a three-dimensional product. When designing the launch campaign, we were also given a budget to think critically on which channels and media were relevant for the target audience.
Instead of creating singular pieces of illustration or design, I aimed to build a story. The final look feels like a whole world where a thumbling-sized orchard citizen Pekka decides to finally pursue his lifelong dream of producing juice. Despite his miniature size, with hard work, innovations and the help of field mouse Milka and greenfinch Teppo, Pekka is able to realise his goals.
In addition to the consumable organic juice, the concept involved a mobile game application where the player could step into Pekka's shoes by building and managing the orchard.
During my exchange semester in Kyoto, Japan in Spring 2023, one of the course assignments was to interpret and visualize two poems from the Japanese classic poem compilation 百人一首 (Hyakunin isshu).
The process started with carefully reading and interpreting the poems, their meanings and the feelings the authors could have wanted to convey to the reader. Next was sketching possible ways to visualize the poem, and during this time the teachers and classmates gave feedback of the work. The brief was to visualize by photographing, so careful planning of props and locations was also necessary.
The poem number 55 speaks of a waterfall which has long stopped existing, and yet its name and location is still known. To visualize it, a figure depicting the spirit of the waterfall was photograped. In a way similar to folktales and legends, even though we cannot be sure they ever were, the people telling the stories keep them alive.
On the other hand, the poem number 65 is a tragic love poem. The author has lost her good reputation, and even her will to hold a grudge, and has wept for so long that even the sleeves of her dress have started to rot. To that end, the model is sitting in a stream of their own tears, with their arms being wet for so long that moss and mushrooms have started to grow on them.
At the end of the course, presentations of the finished works were held at the Kyoto University of the Arts campus tea house, very fitting of the classical theme of the assignment.
As an exchange student, the course assignment provided a great challenge starting from the archaic style poem's language to getting accustomed to the Japanese ways of design.
At Metropolia UAS we worked on a collaboration with Koululainen, a children's magazine, to write, design and illustrate our own stories for a summer special issue.
Here is an article about the Philippines from my mother's childhood's point of view. The article features differences between Finland and the Philippines, as well as pastime activities that were common when my mother was young. The Finnish readers can then see what is different between the two, or perhaps discover that children on the other side of the world are not so different after all.
After writing the rough texts and figuring the layouts, the illustrations were painted by hand on watercolor paper. It was challenging to find a style of infographics that would fit the watercolor illustrations, and finally a colorful palette felt most fitting for the layout.
Rusettia is a small business focused on hair accessories. Their values include beauty in the everyday life and domestic production in Finland. All of their scrunchies are lovingly sewn by hand.
For the Thank You cards the client wished for an airy and feminine look, with a youthful touch.
On a later date we worked together to design spa product wraps. The purpose of these was to help the flexible products stay in compact shape while also communicating about the instructions for use and care. We wanted to make sure the look would reflect Rusettia's Henrika completely, and selected the wavy rim to add that extra touch of personality.
Thank You card's product photo taken by Miina Barck. Spa products' instruction illustrations made by Sini Laurikainen, and product photo taken by Rusettia's Henrika.
Jenna’s grip with the design process was professional from the very beginning. She had familiarised herself with the company, which was already notable from the first e-mail. Jenna could also recommend where to begin if the budget would not allow for a comprehensive design work at once.
When the design process began, we had a video call, during which Jenna was able to ask good questions to help me grasp my own thoughts. Editing the drafts went very smoothly, because the design work had been done thoroughly. The changes were made with a few e-mail exchanges and the design was ready.
The end result was exactly like I wished! I recommend Jenna’s enthusiastic and professional touch to work with other entrepreneurs as well. I will very likely use Jenna’s graphic design services in the future again.
– Henrika, founder of Rusettia
Below you will find a collection of works that were not necessarily created for a larger project or client. These are visually appealing, more individual pieces which showcase my general style.
As a growth-oriented person I have always found stories especially intriguing. Whether it’s an epic adventure, or tiny pieces of everyday life, stories have the power to move our hearts. My goal as a visual communication designer is to become a world builder with an ability to inspire the people around me, and in order to make that happen, I will always strive to learn and listen to other people’s stories.
