The Best of the Year – The Best in Finnish Advertising and Graphic Design 

The Best of the Year event (Vuoden Huiput) is organised by Grafia. It is the most important competition for graphic design and advertising in Finland. The aim of this annual competition is to emphasise the relevance of the work done by visual communication professionals in advertising and graphic design.

The event seeks to raise the standard of Finnish design, to empower creativity and originality and to improve the designers’ professional skill. In addition to the competition, the event includes the award gala, an exhibition compiled from the competition entries and the yearbook which presents works and designers chosen by the juries.

At the time when the event was created in 1980, it was made to conform the D&AD competition in Great Britain.  

 

The Concept 2008 – Form Follows Function

To compensate for last year’s rather advertising-agency-like approach, we wanted to put the emphasis on graphic design and the standpoint of the designer. The Best of the Year is the only competition which is both created and carried out by designers. In the focal point of the competition, you will find creative design.

 

Ribbon-like "Vuoden Huiput" text

Invitation poster wrapper that acts also as project manager's office tool

Competition invitation including info & rules






Logowall
Photos: © Pekka Niittyvirta, via Grafia's photogallery (edited by Werklig)



Menus

Outdoor advertising

 

Also the window of Design Forum Finland was branded. 

The Campaign

Right from the beginning, one the principles of the event has been that the annual campaign behind the competition is initiated and created by designers. The aim of the campaign is to strengthen the brand of the competition and encourage as much attendance as possible. Therefore, the campaign has goals concerning the appreciation of the competition, participation, ticket sale and the advertisement of the annual book.

In the year 2008 Werklig was chosen to design the campaign!

Our deliverables are/were as follows:
· Competition invitation
· Posters
· Online banners
· Print advertising
· Gala dinner cards, menus
· Gala presentation concept
· Exhibition graphics
· Outdoor advertising
· Biggest pyramid ever!

Fennovoima is a Finnish energy company founded in 2007. The company's objective is to build a new nuclear power plant in Finland and produce reasonably-priced electricity for its owners. Fennovoima's majority shareholders are local energy companies and companies representing industry and the retail sector using electricity.

Fennovoima commissioned Werklig to create and design overall look and feel for the organization. We started from the logo facelift and defined the color pattern, moved on to create corporate graphics and use of typography. This served as foundation for overall visual guidelines. In addition, we have created visual framework for photography together with Umbrella Helsinki. 

People of Fennovoima have showcased greatest degree of professionality and drive throughout the whole process, delivering sound briefs, iterations and robust insight.

Fennovoima pattern

 

Fennovoima visual guidelines

 

Fennovoima corporate brochure

 

Fennovoima corporate typography

 

Voimanaiset Christmas-present design

 

Photography concept for Fennovoima, executed by Umbrella Helsinki.

· Logo facelift
· Visual identity guidelines
· Photo narration concept
· Symbol pattern
· Brochure layout
· Business gift and packaging concepting
· Digital Christmas card
· Advertisements
· Book cover design
· Invitation design
· Gift cards
· Office supplies concept

"Attension provides a wide-range of tensiometers and related services for various applications in research and development, quality control and process control."

Werklig created a new identity for Attension, a new high-technology company producing tensiometer devices both for industrial and academic use. The new identity consists of new logo, corporate colours, typography and photography style guidelines. The logo plays with word 'tension', combining a visual idea into one single typographic image. 

 

Logo detail from Attension business cards.

 

Two corporate brochures were designed for Attension. "All About Attension" acts as a general corporate brochure, as "Attension In Detail" concentrates more on technical details of Attension products.

Corporate brochure details, portraying typographic styles used in Attension identity

 

"All About Attension" brochure has glue-binded covers with Attension logo embossed on front cover.  

 

Sample spreads from "All About Attension" corporate brochure  

 

Sample spreads from "Attension In Detail" corporate brochure 

 

Clear photographic style was also created for Attension. All illustative pictures were defined to be based on water theme –  the decision was easy as all Attension products are related to liquids. Product photos were shot by Kimmo Syväri from Umbrella Helsinki. 

Illustrative photos

 

An example of Attension product photos

 

Our deliverables are/were as follows:
· Logo design
· Visual identity guidelines
· Photo narration concept
· Brochure layouts
· Stationary objects (business cards, presentation templates)
· Product sheet templates
· General web design guidelines

 

Anniversary of the Finnish parliament

The 100th anniversary of the Parliament of Finland lasted from spring 2006 to autumn 2007. On 1 June 2006 it was be a hundred years since the Finnish estates adopted the new Parliament Act and the Election Act. On 23 May 2007 it was a hundred years since the first plenary session of the unicameral parliament. The theme of the anniversary was "Right to vote - trust in law. A hundred years of democracy in Finland."

Anssi from Werklig was responsible for creating the identity for anniversary.

Identity elements

The anniversary identity consisted of emblem and logo(s) and specially picked colours. Typography and other visual elements were based on Parliament's main visual guidelines (that were also designed by Anssi).

Anniversary emblem

Anniversary emblem was loosely based on the theme ("Right to vote - trust in law")- it is possible to see "§" symbol set sideways, surrounding numbers "1","0" and "0".

The form of the logo was also influenced by Parliament House's architectural details. Parliament House (Eduskuntatalo in Finnish) was designed by Johan Sigfrid Sirén. It was built between years 1926–1931 and it is a combination of Neoclassicism and early twentieth century modernism styles. The Anniversary emblem pays a homage to those styles by having a "meander" form clearly visible in it.

"Meanders are common decorative elements in Greek art and Roman art. They appear on many friezes and at the top of some porticos. The design is common in present-day architecture as a neoclassical element." (source: Wikipedia)

The symbol colour of Parliament (deep blue, Pantone 540) was combined with platinum colour to create special look-and-feel for the anniversary event.

Identity guidelines can be downloaded (pdf) from Parliament's website.

Applications

Brochures and other marketing material were created. Special effects (such as hot foil, embossing, embroidery, varnishing and metal inks) were used extensively in materials. Anniversary coffee packaging, pens, canvas folders were designed, to name a few. Anniversary emblem was also printed in stamps (stamp design by Timo Berry from BOTH).

Anniversary brochure (metal ink, spot varnish).

 

Anniversary lecture folders, including notebooks and pens. Folders are coated with canvas and equipped with especial pen and notebook holders. Pens have anniversary emblem engraved in them. 

 

Anniversary coffee and tea packaging.

 

Stamp with anniversary emblem (stamp design by Timo Berry).

A comprehensive identity renewal

Anssi, with some support from Janne, have been responsible of designing the visual identity of Vihti municipality. The overall objective was to redesign cohesive visual identity that is based on Vihti's objectives, mission and values and supports the overall communication strategy. 

More closely, the identity was designed to create fresh, dynamic, timeless and stylish look & feel to be implemented in various channels and materials. And, of course, differentiate from other municipalities. 

From various deliverables here are pictured some of them. 

Vihti logo

Logo variations for different municipality departments

Colour palette

Tableware detail

Work:

Graphic guidelines including
· logo
· colours
· coat of arms use
· pattern
· typography
· forms
· brochure guidelines
· ad forms
· tableware
· powerpoint templates

 

Werklig's own inhouse identity. We like it.

 

These projects are company confidential and thus not open for public viewing.

Eduskunta (in Finnish), or the Riksdag (in Swedish), is the Parliament of Finland. The Parliament of Finland is an unicameral parliament with 200 members, who meet in Parliament House (Eduskuntatalo; Riksdagshuset) in Helsinki.

The Parliament of Finland went through a discreet visual facelift during years 2004-2007 - Anssi from Werklig was responsible for the design.

A complete visual identity

A number of visual tools were created for the client. The main tool was a light visual identity (defining colours and typography to be used). All promotional material was then produced following the new guidelines. This included a set of brochures (approximately 20-30 different brochures, ranging from 3 to seven language versions, including also such languages as Sámi and Russian), quickscreens, information flyers, posters, publication covers, PPT and layout templates - to name a few.

Brochure templates can be seen in use at the Visitor's Centre whichoperates in the Little Parliament, next to Parliament main building.

Sample of brochure templates designed for the Parliament. Simple and easy to use and update.

Promotional items - such as information brochures (cover above) - were designed also for The Library of Parliament.

More dynamic photos were also needed for the Parliament, so Parliament's photo library was re-built during the facelift, too. Old photos were assembled into one database and streamlined. New photos were taken by such photographers as Joanna Moorhouse (picture above, © Parliament).

Parliament Symbol gets a facelift

One of the most demanding tasks was to re-design Parliament's symbol - a house pictogram drawn by architect Ola Laiho in the 80's. The symbol had been used for years but it had some weaknesses that needed to be fixed. However, at the same time it was crucial to keep the symbol visually "unchanged". The solution was succesful and it increased symbol's usability, visibility and recognisability.

Comparison of the original (on left) and redrawn symbol (on right).

Symbol/logo applications, horizontal versions.

Symbol/logo applications, vertically aligned versions.