Badges ---

--- Badges are already sold in the Jyväskylä Art Museum but now they are also available at the Jyväskylä Artists' Society Gallery Becker.
My Etsy shop of colouring images is closed for a while (I haven't got time to upload images) but I'll be tuning up my Monsterium products during the summer. After clearing my desk of zillions of small undone projects.

Uno and Wolmar

Today the net exhibition telling the story of two Finnish notable men, Uno Cygnaeus and Wolmar Schildt, was opened in a very ceremonious event in Jyväskylä University - where I couldn't unfortunately participate. How ever - after a slightly rocky road and verrrrrry tight schedule, the net exhibition was finally set online successfully.

This project has taken my whole spring actually - even though I had dozens of other projects planned as well.

Ellinoora

A light site design for a cultural producer friend who has helped me in many projects and in many roles.

Just an ordinary day

I'm mostly lucky to have clients (I'm quite selective, after all), but some projects make this site feel so real: Clients from Hell.

Somehow I feel a slight dejavu coming from this:

Client: “I didn’t get anything.”

Us: “Sorry, our email is down.”

Client: “Can you just fax me the animated gif so I can see how it looks?”

Us: “Well, it’s about a dozen frames. (Joking) So we’d have to fax it like a flip book.”

Client: “Okay.”

This made me reflect my projects today to the projects ten years ago. I'm getting it easy these days :D

Alvar Aalto Foundation

"Finally" n:o 2.

Grrrr---

Fighting with Aalto Foundation site... I've got some gray hair when I've tried to solve mysterious not-working website with some ajax and some javascript code... After over weeks fight with the front page looking allright and next time uploaded, after a very small code changes, it's complete mosaic - I nearly lost my nerve when the solutions is not just found. Until this day I realized that it's the poor temporary Elisa web hotel I'm using to make this. Coloriasto front page is on the same server (temporarily though, I hope) and I have some time wondered why don't the page load completely even though it's not very heavy page (177Kb). This was both a very reliefing realization but somehow I'm now more frustrated than before. I don't have the time to move the whole site to another testing server since I have so little time and I can't trust in what I see on my screen. So, I just have to go with the Force. With my eyes totally covered and just trusting myself to make this right. Wow.

But after the site is refined I have to move it anyway - I just realized that if it doesn't show itself to me, how will it work with people who want to check it first before publishing. Whoa.

Close my eyes and count to ten...

Jyväskylä Artists' Association

"Finally" n:o 1.
www.jkltaiteilijaseura.net

Jyväskylä Artists' Association site finally up and ready - but unfortunately not in English (at least not yet). This was a much more bigger mission than it probably looks like, since the site holds actually three sites: one for association itself, one for the art gallery with exhibitions and one for the art shop. Each artist of the association has a possibility to add an image/photo and some contact information next to his/her name; I've used accordion scripts to complete that one so that the site isn't too busy. Main page uses three main images: one for gallery is always reserved for on going exhibition; one is for art shop and one for the association. Images are clickable to full view with name and other information.

The update took the whole night and I got to go to bed at about 6am. What a glorious feeling it was to know that the site is up - at least until about 11 am when I went to have a meeting in Live Herring office and found out that the site didn't work at all. After waiting a while and after sending an angry email to web hotel provider I finally got information (this was already afternoon) that there were some kind of trouble with servers which were down. After some time I got a new message that everything is ok now. But it wasn't: they had replaced my new site version with old old old site. Boiling boiling boiling. Some boiling emails later the matter was fixed though.

Hey, mr. Murphy! Hope you had a nice visit here and hopefully I won't hear from you soon.

Ultravox - Thinwall

Oh, Vlad, you say things in your website that I've hoped I had said - just about a million times.

The beginning of the year has started with massive re-design of Alvar Aalto Foundation site - which is not nearly close over. Which makes me a bit anxious.

Also at the working table now are the renewing of Jyväskylä Artist Society site (closer to re-launching than I can bear to think...), english pages for print maker Kirsi Neuvonen and some smaller sites for artists and friends - including Timppa and myself.

And also, the mother of all projects: a massive web exhibition about Uno Cygnaeus and Wolmar Schildt as it is their bicentennary celebration year (from their births if I remember right). Well, not so massive exhibition in contentwise but in realization... Let's see how it will turn out.

I started making some badges already before christmas but since then the time bubble for my own projects just miraculously disappeared. I have to somehow break out from this bubble.

Riiminka product labels

Fast order: a simple two-sided product label design 50mmx90mm for Riiminka.

The new year...

...started with a slight panic. I have been sleeping and eating and sleeping and... what the good people usually do in their super holidays. And now I'm standing here with my calendar on my hand wondering: in which moment it already filled?

I really have no time to wonder endlessly: I've been working with renewing of Alvar Aalto Foundation site and that has been a sort of hell. I was first commissioned to renew only the front page and the navigational system but as the navigation changes it affects to all pages. I haven't been with in planning the navigation (or user interface) and it's a bit hard to take in and implement the whole thing wisely. We talked first about a very slight code-based renewing which would help updating the site (which is not using cms) and which would be easy to do, but somehow I ended up receiving a folder full of new documents and updated texts on the site too. I realized today that I will have to start again and re-design the whole site - even though that is not my commission. Let's see what happens. These "one part" renewings has never been my friends, at least when I haven't been on the original team myself.

Uh, and I'll have a dentist next week. Not a good start.

Sivistyksen syke - bicentennial anniversary site for Cygnaeus and Schildt

First pages of an information site for bicentennial celebration of two notable Finnish men, Uno Cygnaeus and Wolmar Schildt were published today. The bicentennial celebration will take place next year, in 2010. This is a very small information site which will contain - besides short introductions to both men - mainly the information calendar to the anniversary events. The event calendar and exhibition calendar will be opened during the beginning of 2010. I designed the overall visual look of the site commissioned by the City of Jyväskylä and the Museum of Jyväskylä University.

The anniversary will hold also an net exhibition which will open in March 2009. I'm commissioned to make graphics and execution of the site, but my work will be based on the script and vision by Anne Kalliomäki who has also written the texts to the info site.

unojawolmar200.jyvaskyla.fi

Christmas rush

The year has been busy. I've been planning to update my web site (and Timppa's - which I had promised already before summer) and also start a new portfolio site but somehow time manages to pass us by flying. There have been some action on art front so I won't complain. I didn't sell any works from the Poriginal Gallery exhibition but while the exhibition I got a commission of 85 prints from Central Finland
Health Care District - which was good enough reason to start to plan another trip to Tuscany, Italy. Also, I have some of my prints on "Jouluksi kotiin" (To Home for Christmas) exhibition in Rööperin taidesalonki in Helsinki until January 6, 2010.

I also made some small sites. Jussi Jäppinen ky - graafinen suunnittelu was totally a collect-the-pieces-and-put-them-together gig: the site graphics and user interface as well as the whole content was provided for me by Jussi Jäppinen and his son (working in the same graphic design agency) Juho Jäppinen, so I won't take any credit for web design there. But it was a work project allright.

I still have to finish a layout for an anniversary site for Cygnaeus and Schildt - which is laid out in the cms of the City of Jyväskylä which cuts off a lot of creativity...

So, this is christmas: snow snow snow and it's freezing cold. But candles burning and hot cocoa. And chatting with Ulla who's still couple of days in the residence in Oaxaca, Mexico. It could be worse...

Badges...

I designed my first snap-on badges to sell in some christmas events, f.ex. Art Museum Christmas Bazaar in the beginning of December. They sold quite well... The rest of my first badge set will be sold at the Jyväskylä Art Museum, museum shop and they will cost about 3 euros each.

I ordered another load of badge pin-back sets and hopefully I find some time to make more of these badges...

The Art Council of Central Finland

The Art Council of Central Finland website was only "sort-or-renewed". There has been discussion or the renewing for years now but nothing concrete has happened so far. The old visual layout was last time renewed in last spring to its flowery springy look but it was meant to be a temporary look only. Since the decision of remaking the site is still on hold, I decided to make at least something refreshing: the Art Council logo was re-designed on September 2009 by Aino-Kaarina Pajari and instead just placing the logo into the old site, I decided to utilize the fresh logo design in site design as well. No constructual or code renewing was make, the update was cosmetical only.

www.kstaide.net

Live Herring ad in Arctic & Fabulous festival mag

Live Herring and Arctic & Fabulour Film Festival have been working together since the first days of Live Herring and it was only fair that we would buy ad space from the festival mag. Plus it's a good place for us to info about our activities - even so, when we have this great show and workshop coming next March (by Sami van Ingen).
One page A5 size black and white ad.

Papiina site renewed

Renewing Papiina site was a truly awaited project: the last site design was really hard to update. The site was simplified a lot and stage was given to those beautiful designs and beautiful photos and colours instead of text and logos. I used image scrolling in some pages to give some dynamic essence to the site.

www.papiina.com

Emalipuu - Enamel Wood

I can't really remember when did we first start to plan the website project with Ulla and Arto (a couple who owns Emalipuu), but it was years ago. About five or six I guess? But it was a good thing that we could stew the project long enough, because now when it's done, I can proudly say that this was the most interesting and intriquing project in this year (I bet there are none web commissions like this coming, at least this year). I have visited Ulla and Arto in their home in the countryside several times with Tiina Leino who has made the printed material (calling cards, brochures, packages...) We've enjoyed coffee and talk a lot of other stuff too.

This project has been some kind of therapy for me, even though these kind of forever-lasting projects can be a pain in the ***. This wasn't. That doesn't mean that I wasn't relieved when the site was finally published.

I usually don't write any content to my commission websites. Normally I may advise with the headlines and content in general but I won't write the stories and do the copy writer's job at all. This time I took the copy writer's job as well as Ulla and Arto gave me free hands to write in my way. The texts came out a bit sentimental but overall good.

Only in Finnish: www.emalipuu.fi

Animoitu liike - The Animated Movement

Finally - the time is here for animated movement...

In this year’s programme of the Jyväskylä based Time of Dance Festival there is a novel workshop that combines dance and media art: Live Herring work group organizes Animated Movement workshop in cooperation with Time of Dance Festival. The workshop is an open to all, walk-in workshop and it's organized in September 24-26 in Jyväskylä City Library.

The event is produced by Live Herring and planned by Matti Niinimäki and me. Matti and I got a joint grant from AVEK to prepare the project: Matti has concentrated on the technical side of the project and I have been working with the workflow of the workshop, the overall concept and on more artsy side background graphics - and ofcourse the printed material. The concept of the workshop was originally mine but has been since developed in co-operation with Matti.



The Finnish site of the project: www.liveherring.org/animoitu_liike
Read Live Herring feeds of the subject in English www.liveherring.org/tag/animated-movement

Jyväskylä Seura ry

Jyväskylä Seura ry aka The Jyväskylä Society is an regional society aiming to develope the surroundings in several ways. The society wants to spread the information of the area of Jyväskylä and also tries to get people to be interested on their own home surroundings.

Making this website was a few year project (as many of those website projects for societys and associations are) and it was first meant to use wordpress as cms. But after some time, the whole idea of word press went out and I made the whole page in old fashioned way (using some ajax to ease the navigation etc. though). The site is now updated by the societys secretery.

The site design is very minimal. I had a fading background in my first implementation but the final version is very clean - and ofcourse the main colours are blue and white...

Only in Finnish: jyvaskylaseura.fi

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

A three days workshop period took finally the whole week of preparing and changing the plans - especially when the target audience was not the original planned. When the workshop didn't sell out to its target audience, the orderer filled the course with its own workers and students. Which is ok otherwise but I had planned the whole three day session to a particular group of people. So, suddenly I stood there with a material I had made for many days and of which I had no use because the basic situation had changed so much. Everything worked out well however, and there were at least few people there who were very positive and thought that they had received a lot from the course. Still - it wasn't my best workshop, not even near.

The exhibition in Lahti will open in beginning of September and all the promo material with press releases and such should be already there. We made posters and invitation flyers and managed to post them on time but I still have to write some texts today and update my CV for the gallery. Actually, I was quite shocked when I saw the invitation flyer printed. I didn't require the proof before printing because I had to be in the workshop and because the image was totally the same as I used in the Jämsä exhibition (with absolutely no changes on the imagefile but the texts) and even the paper was the same. So, when after Timppa had posted all the posters and flyers and brought me one to see, I noticed that it was almost black and white. What the hell? It doesn't actually look very bad, but *it's not the original*. I have no idea if the posters are the same, since I don't have any extra posters myself but everything was shipped to Lahti. I have to go to the print house tomorrow to hear their explanation of this - and hopefully to get some price down.