Long time no update

Wow, I totally lost track of updating this blog after Covid 19 started. At the same, in March-April 2020, I also moved and started a new job. The new job is a longer employment, for which I am very grateful, considering the times we’ve all been living since early 2020.

I’m currently working as a graphic designer and illustrator for a research and development project called Resursstarka barn (Resourceful children).

Resursstarka barn (Yh Novia 2021)

You can read more about it in Swedish on the soon to be launched website. I’m responsible for the whole visual design of the project, which has been a very fun challenge for me. My past experience fits perfectly in this combination of research, illustration and work with children. I’ve also done the graphic design for other research publications within Novia, but also for Turun Yliopisto/VASSO (I’ll post links to those later when they are published). And more is to come. Many doors have opened, and I’m enjoying being able to go deep into information visualization and design processes.

That is also why I have not updated this blog for so long. I was busy doing the work, rather than promoting it 😀

It feels like I have learned so much the past year, especially my skills in vector art and graphic design have developed a lot. I’m also writing my own design thesis in service design about the project, and therefore not only developing practical skills, but also my design thinking skills.

Meanwhile I was also lucky to be invited into a children’s book project by Jolin Slotte. Jolin worked together with 140 children and created a fun story, that I had the privilege to illustrate. I also did the layout for the book. It recently got a very nice review in Swedish here.

Mikael, jag och Karlssonligan (Marginal förlag 2021)

A year ago I also had my first solo fine art exhibition in Mökki Galleria. I have uploaded most of the paintings on a new page here now. Most are still for sale, and you can simply contact me for details if you are interested in a painting. I’m going to be collaborating with Mökki Galleria also next year.

Mandarines, oil on cardboard, 2020.

This summer I did the graphic design for a photo exhibition here in Turku. The artists Rewan Kakil and Saara Aina have created touching photographs together with project manager Nana Blomqvist. I was very proud to be part of the exhibition by designing flyers and text presentations.

Flyer for the exhibition Love crossing boundaries, summer 2021, Turku

Love Crossing Boundaries, photo exhibition by Rewan Kakil and Saara Aina, 12.06-20.08.2021.

My work with Resursstarka barn continues until the end of 2022. And I also have other projects starting this Autumn. Hopefully I will take the time to write more about them as they progress…

Take care ❤

Sanalanka – best educational application!

Yesterday the Sanalanka Speech Application team took part in the Turku ICT ShowRoom, and we got an honorary prize for best educational application! See more information on our Facebook page.

This was amazing news, and I’m very happy to be part of this team. Hopefully the prize will mean that the application will get funding and that we can keep developing it – because it is an amazing idea, and we have an amazing team making it!

Team receiving the prize

Natasha, Olli and I at our stand.

Lots of opportunities to try out the demo! Cute stickers!

February update

Hi!

I’ve been a busy little bee, the last couple of months. Juggling a staggering amount of projects and searching for new ones at the same time, is time consuming and not very easy at all. But things are looking up, and the future looks bright!

On the studies side, I’ve completed 15 ETCS in Service Design courses last autumn, and now I’m in the middle of a course called Marketing Skills. I’m mostly focusing on developing my company brand in the course project. Very fun and interesting work! Later in the Spring I will attend a class on Future Research – and area that has interested me for a long time. I’ve started writing my Master’s thesis for my degree programme, and my working topic is “Drawing the Future of Illustration”. In the thesis I will focus on my own artist brand, where I want to develop it, and how I see the future of my business.

And then work work work…

My work illustrating an easy to read adaption of the prize winning fantasy novel Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff has been very fun and challenging. I am also doing the graphic design, basically the whole visual layout of the book. I would say I am a bit over halfway done with it now, and the work is due to be finished for printing in June. It will be published by Lärum Förlag in August 2016.

The Speech Therapy Application demo that I’m doing script and graphics for, is soon finished – it is final crunch time at the moment. It will be showcased in the ICT-showroom in March. This work has been an absolute joy, especially the collaboration with the wonderful team! The app and game has raised a lot of interest, which is expected: the idea to make fun games for kids to play, while doing speech therapy is brilliant. There will also be development of technical innovations in the app. I’m very happy to be part of the project, and am hoping to be able to keep developing the app with our awesome team!

And Underworld Kitchen is also under active development again. I’m doing ten more characters, and once again I get to tinker with pixels, and I LOVE IT! I’ll also be doing some environment concepts for the game.

I’ve been teaching comic book drawing on Thursday evenings, and I’m really enjoying coming up with new exercises and experimenting on the students… I’ve been teaching academic subjects for many years, but now I really think I’ve found what I really should be doing when it comes to education. Teaching a more practical subject, like drawing and comics, is just so much fun! And I feel I can really develop as a leader, facilitator and interaction designer at the same time.

Exciting times. The light is returning in the North and life goes on.

Sanalanka – Speech Therapy Tool

As of October I’m doing story writing and graphics for an application project called Sanalanka (“Word Thread” in Finnish).

The goal is to create an interactive book for tablets. The app will have researched speech therapy methods baked into a fun and engaging story with minigames that develop childrens’ language and speech. It will first be made for Finnish speaking children aged 0-3 and 4-6 (two levels). There are four programmers, three speech therapists, three graphic artists involved, and the project is also a Turku University IT student project (Capstone). The prototype is due in March 2016, and the app will then be developed for the open market.

The game studio that will publish the app is called Red Nettle Studio, and I will also do other collaborations with them. Here you can read more about the app. And soon we will go public with our Facebook page. I’m very excited to be part of this project!

Fairy tale girls

In my last blog post I said I have more good news. And I sure do!

I got a grant from The Finnish Association for Illustrators, that I’ve been a member of for eight years already. I haven’t applied for their working grants before, and in April I got the idea that my Goldilocks illustration could use some company. I already had a contact to a publisher who publishes easy to read books for all ages, and so I pitched them a story book with my illustrations. The fairy tales I’ve picked out will all have a girl protagonists. However, another author who knows more about easy to read texts will do the writing.

So in September and onwards I’ll be focusing on fairy tales! I’m so excited about this, it’s a dream come true. Ever since I was young I’ve adored classical fairy tale illustration, especially artists from the Nordic countries: John Bauer, Hans Arnold, Theodor Kittelsen, Rudolf Koivu, Kay Nielsen, Björn Landström and Tove Jansson of course. Now I will have a chance to make my own mark among these giants.

But the summer is all pixel art and games (I’ll update you on progress soon! Some awesome characters are forming as we speak). Goldilocks will have to wait a few months more…

Goldilocks is already available as a print: Check my Society6-shop!

January: Storybook characters and Doctors

I’m still on maternity leave until the end of February, but I’ve done some projects during January.

First there’s Daleks for Doctors. The idea came from a facebook-group I’m in, Geek Women Workout. A member wanted a T-shirt with Daleks saying “Exercise! Exercise!”, so I decided I needed to make those tees happen. All profits will go to Doctors without borders, as the idea was not mine, and I’ve been waiting for the chance to do a charity project.

Here’s one of the prints:

And the print is available in my Society6-shop! Chop chop and go shopping!

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Since I’m with a very mobile 8 month old baby right now I can’t do a lot of digital stuff at the computer, so I’ve done mostly graphite sketching while the baby is on the floor exploring. A series of storybook characters have emerged! Here’s Goldilocks:

She, and Snow White, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel will soon get the full on digital treatment. Stay tuned 🙂