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About
Versatile professional with 15+ years of experience
I´m a Finnish designer, entrepreneur and dad living and working in France and Finland.
I have more than 15 years’ experience in creative visual work. Before setting up my own business, I was employed by the design and advertising agencies.
I graduated as a Bachelor of Culture and Arts (graphic design) in 1998. Besides that, I have studied business.
My clients come from a wide range of industries, from the ICT, real estate and food industries, to the health care industry and public sector. I have done many kinds of creative projects starting from extensive brand and visual design renewals to the lay-out design of web content, annual reports and packages to name a few.
In my mind, successful design conveys the essence of a brand to all stakeholders of an organisation. In my work, each client and project is different but still every one starts from the strategic goals of business.
How I work
Check out my portfolio
Mikko is very innovative and creative but also versatile designer. He talks business, and converts it to superb visual design. I have worked with him from brand identity, booth stands to publications, and everything between. Mikko delivers high quality on time and budget.
Petri Kajander
(client)
I´ve used Mikko´s help for many years. He has succesfully helped to create and change our company´s profile and our products layouts. Mikko is keen to study the present case properly and he can smell the newest breezes every time. His versatility surprises me always.
Marko Sahlman
(client)
Mikko is one of the most innovative and creative persons I’ve ever worked with. His sparkling ideas and ability to simplify strategies into visual are, in one word, brilliant. Mikko’s attitude towards work is humble, but passioned and he has mind and heart of a great visualizer!
Tiia Makinen
(colleague)
Services
Strategic Design
Visual Identity
Brands in Order
Visual Skanning
Brand Guidelines
Visual Identity
Visual identity forms the essence of the brand and distinguishes it from the competitors. Visual identity is a visual expression of the business strategy.
Building a visual identity means a long-term investment for a company. It increases the immaterial capital and brings additional value that manifests itself in relationships with customers and in mergers and acquisitions.
Basic elements of the visual identity are the logo, colours and typography which are supported by graphic patterns and the style of the photos, for example.
Visual identity can also be designed for a product or a company brand.
Brands in Order
Brands in Order is a brand hierarchy process for streamlining the brand portfolio. As a result of a rapid growth or in mergers the brand portfolio can get messy and slip from the strategical targets.
Brands in Order process guarantees that the brand entity supports the business and its targets.
Visual Skanning
A brand is not an island. Every brand operates in a context of competing brands and other reference groups.
Visual Scan studies the visual environment of a brand and recognises the various ways the brand can stand up.
Brand Guidelines
Graphic Instructions give advice about how the visual look is implemented. It defines how to use the basic elements (logo, colours, typography) of the visual look in practical cases. Instructions tell us how the practical applications, like visiting cards, powerpoint or brochures are supposed to look like.
The scope of the instructions can vary case by case. They can form a compact mini version or a wide brand manual which also covers the brand hierarchy, office space, style of brand pictures, for example.
Examples of Practical Implementations
Web design
Logo Design
Package design
Publication Design
Illustration
Web design
The Web is in the key position regarding the brand visibility. I design the kind of web visibility that aligns with the company’s business goals, and also implement that in practise, when needed.
Logo Design
The company emblem is designed in most cases at the same time with other elements of the visual look, like colours or typography.
The logo renewal can vary from designing a completely new logo to “the make-up” of the old one.
Package design
I design the composition and look of separate packages or package series.
Publication Design
I plan the look and implementation of various kind of publications, for example books, reports and customer magazines.
Illustration
The illustrations, icons and the use of photography are essential part of the brand’s visual identity and a strong way to differentiate from the competition.
