Happy May Day to everyone from Werklig!

Some home made Sima made by Anssi's lovely wife.

By the way, exactly one year ago we moved into our "new" office space in Kruununhaka. We are still very happy here and are waiting for some summer lunches and sunshine in Kauppatori.

Grand One for the digital media agencies is what The Best Of The Year-competition is for us design agencies. Yesterday's Grand One-gala was held for the 15th time and the prizes were given in 12 different categories. The place for the night was Apollo and it was full of energetic media people ready to hit the stage with their winning work. You can check the results here (in Finnish).

Really nice graphics by Johannes Ekholm

Some last minute voting (Photos via Mtv3 Spot)

Chairman of the jury Ari Ojansivu from Mediacom (Photos via Mtv3 Spot)

Some happy moments on stage (Photos via Mtv3 Spot)

The company of the year: !noob (Photos via Mtv3 Spot)

Last friday we were invited to spend a nice winter day at Uunisaari with our fellow Luxus people. Real work was left at the office and it was time to make snowsculptures and walk around in the sun. The weather was perfect.

Anssi spread some Werklig love around. 

Doing typography with snow is not that easy!

We, Werklig people, with some help from Mikko and Jaakko from Luxus made this huge pyramid. We didn't win the challenge but we sure beat everyone with size.
After finishing the pyramid we went to sauna and avanto.  

Jaakko gives Anssi some instructions.

Janne captures the moment.

We here at Werklig wish all the amazing ladies a beautiful Women's Day!

There's a new club in town! DJ's KD and Jenna will play music from disco, experimental, cosmic and old French pop to new, cold and dark waves! The club starts at Musta Kissa on Friday 26/2, 21-02.

The two of them asked me to do a visual identity and consept for their club
YÉ YÉ! The brief was to come up with something surrealistic, could it get any better than that?

The idea is to alter the surrealistic kaleidoscope-like illustration a bit each time by just changing the angles and position of the elements by creating a slightly different atmosphere for each club. I will add a new pic here for each club night.

It's free and surreal! 

YÉ YÉ poster NO 1 by Inka Järvinen

YÉ YÉ poster NO 2 by Inka Järvinen

YÉ YÉ poster NO 3 by Inka Järvinen

YÉ YÉ poster NO 4 by Inka Järvinen 

Minna Parikka asked me to do a collaboration for a silk scarf collection with her. Minna Parikka is a succesful Finnish shoe designer who sells her collections around the world. I really admire Minna's way to work and I'm happy to have the opportunity to work with such a talent. For me this is a perfect way to be creative. Making something new by combining two ways of thinking forthe ambition of making something beautiful.

Photography: Nina Merikallio

Photography: Nina Merikallio

Photography: Nina Merikallio

The scarf collection was inspired by women, their beauty and some traditional silk scarf imaginary.

The collection is coming out next fall and is presented in fashion fairs in Copenhagen, Milan and Paris during this spring.

I had the honor to have some of my works published in Flashback
— A book about Retro Design in Contemporary Graphics. The book was edited by Viction:ary.

Cover of Flashback via Viction:ary

"Retro design has emerged today as designers begin to look back to the vivid 20th century and find inspirations for new graphic styles in the depressive pixel age. Some think the collective and sensational reference of the old time aesthetics is the retrieval of the lost enthusiasm for new findings and the future in the new century, others reckon it as a tribute to the prominent art and design movements between the roaring twenties and the early nineties. Taking a trip down memory lane and witnessing a bold and pronounced application of shapes, typefaces and illustration works in contemporary graphic art, Flashback unveils how the epoch persists to be an enduring spring inside modern creative studios in the well-defined sections of Geometry, Typography and Illustration."

 
One of the works published in the book: Tuli & Savu made together by Inka Järvinen &  FRÄCK

Some other Finnish contribution by: Ahonen&Lamberg, Janine Rewell, Kokoro & Moi, FRÄCK and Jonatan Eriksson 

Finally someone did it! A christmas calendar with a twist. Laura Väinölä gathered 24 designers to do a box of surprise.

I was happy to participate since this is really something that I have been waiting for! Other designers are Daniel Palillo, Mikael Kivelä, Ok Do, K.I. Kinnunen, Chris Bolton, Sherpa, Kasino and Noora Niinikoski to name a few. Can't wait to see them!

You can get your own calendar from My o My, Skanno pop-up Store, Pino, Design Forum, Wunder, Helsinki 10, Papershop, Akateeminen kirjakauppa, Kiasma, EMMA, Taidehalli, Designmuseo and Ateneum.

This morning this amazing fog surrounded the city. The market place looked absolutely beautiful on my way to work.

You should definitely go and check Mark Kuivanen's new silkscreen-prints at Myymälä2. This one man exhibition is dedicated to Kazumasa Nagai, Sergei Parajanov, Masaaki Otsubo, El Lissitzky, Ikko Tanaka, Francisco Infante, Roy Lichtenstein, Shigeo Fukuda, Takenobu Igarashi, Andrei Tarkovsky, Yusaku Kamekura, Shunichi Nakajima, Stanley Kubrick, Kazimir Malevitch, Tadanori Yokoo, Victor Vasarely, Toshihiro Katayama, Michelangelo Antonioni, Kiyoshi Awazu, Joan Miro, Alexandro Jodorowsky, Tomoyuki Hasumi, Mitsuo Katsui, family & friends.

The works are a great combination of simple forms, pixels and surfaces and have influences of the great artist above. All the posters are hand printed and are sold as limited edition of black&white screen prints.

The exhibition is open 18-29.11. 2009 at Myymälä2
Uudenmaankatu 23 00100 Helsinki Finland
Wed - Sat 12-18, Sun 12-17 

The exhibition is supported by Grafia