Projects and corporate collaboration
An essential part of design education is the gaining of practical on-the-job experience with various operators in the world of business.
Students implement the graphic design and digital media commissions from companies, organisations or communities either in teams or independently. Each project has a director named by the department, which co-ordinates all projects. Commissions implemented as billable services are based on co-operating partners' genuine needs, but projects considered as belonging to students' studies can also be non-commercial, analytical or art acquisitions. They can be related to larger overall entities and can be structured as co-operative projects between different departments.
The department of media accepts visual design commissions from all sub-areas of communications and design. The most typical projects relate to corporate and product graphics, advertising, Internet websites, the design of electronic publications, as well as publication (magazines' appearance and layout), poster and packaging design. Our co-operating partners include City of Helsinki, Finnish Transport Agency, KELA, UNICEF, Plan, A. Ahlström Oy, Oy Hartwall Ab, Sanoma Osakeyhtiö, Oy Sinebrychoff Ab, Stora Enso Oyj, YLE, Nokia and the Finnish Tourist Board.
Selected projets are presented only in Finnish.
Liikennevirasto & TVV lippu- ja maksujärjestelmä Oy: Waltti Travel Card
Recently published new card system allows one travel card to be used in different forms of public transportation across Finland. The card is already in use in Jyväskylä and Joensuu and eventually it will cover 22 of the main urban centres in Finland outside the capital city region. In this project Aalto graphic design MA students were asked to create: visual identity for the card and rest of the services, brand roadmap to sketch the evolution of the card and attractive name for the service.
During the two week long intensive workshop each of the six teams created design concept proposal. The client chose one for further development. Final product, colourful Waltti Card stands out, is playful and friendly. Students in the winning team: Daniel Forsman, Jana Nenodic and Pilvi Meriluoto.
Academy of Fine Arts: Visual identity for Kuvan Kevät 2014
In Kuvan kevät study project students had to work in teams and create visual identity for the Academy of Fine Arts’ annual exhibition. The degree show is the highlight of the exhibition year at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Visual identity included products such as book or catalogue, advertising campaign, invitation, poster, website, infographics in the gallery space and alternative ways to communicate about the degree show. Students in the winning team: Tomi Leppänen and Vesa Vuorio
City of Helsinki & Forum Virium: Living Lab
Living Lab is a service concept, where users and developers together ideate, co-design and test new services and products. Helsinki is setting up first large scale Living Lab service in 2014 as a part of Kalasatama Smart City residential area development.
Students from Graphic design unit, Media Lab and Department of Design were asked to create: 1) Brand identity for Living Lab Kalasatama. This included visual identity, name and logo that can be adapted into new Living Labs in Helsinki area. 2) Service design concept for Kalasatama area. This included the main service levels and touchpoints for different stakeholders, examples of interaction design and new playful methods to engage users.
The winning concept called Oma.Helsinki is a digital and physical platform, which points out the relationship between participation as a democracy and participation in innovation processes. The 3 main attributes of the service are the online portal, the modular space and the pop-up space. A concept which can be easily started small and scaled up to the use of the whole city, both digitally and physically.
Oma.Helsinki was created by MA students Jana Nenadic, Bárbara Rebolledo and Lisa Lee.
City of Helsinki: Hel.fi redesign
New City of Helsinki website is designed graphic design and the Media Lab students.
Hel.fi student project started with current state analysis and interaction design research. Students worked in small teams and created concept proposals and visual identity for new website. The winning team continued working with City central administration.
The new site is more user and service oriented, and it is easier to find information. Users no longer need to know the City of Helsinki organization to find information. City services and news are grouped by theme and user group. The most popular services and the main current affairs are highlighted on the home page. The new site works on smart phones and tablet computers and has various language versions.
Hel.fi website is designed by Anssi Kokkonen, Irmeli Iivonen ja Tommi Leskinen.
PACK-AGE: Interdisciplinary Packaging Design Project
PACK-AGE is a project course taught in collaboration by teachers from 4 different schools with different packaging background. Students work in interdisciplinary design teams with real packaging design projects from the industry. Project-based learning is supported by a number theme lectures and workshops.
Course coordinator: design researcher Markus Joutsela.
FILI: Frankfurt Book Fair in 2014
Finland will appear as guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2014. The concept and slogan FINNLAND. COOL. was created by Aalto’s graphic design students.
The concept is based on alphabets from A to Ö referring to words and themes relevant to the project. The adjective ‘cool’ has a variety of meanings and associations: chilled, appropriate, calm, refined, great. The team behind the winning concept and visual identity was MA students Anssi Kokkonen, Tommi Leskinen ja Jinhee Kim.
http://www.finlit.fi/fili/frankfurt2014/
City of Espoo: Bus of Wonders
Aalto students helped children learn to learn with a fresh attitude to service design. The library bus became a multi-media center for all senses. Aalto University. Mix arts, business and technology. Learn more: aalto.fi/studies.
New Media for the Third Sector
The study project explores the role of social media tools and services in increasing the effectiveness and reach of the activities and communication of third sector organizations. The approach is based on design research and prototyping activities carried out collaboratively with a partner organization.
2013 we challenged the idea of the “third sector” as a setting by collaborating with the Cleaning day (Siivouspäivä) movement and its main working group.
2011 we worked with the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) a Finnish independent non-profit organization that works to resolve conflict and to build sustainable peace.
2009 case was the WHO’s Health Action in Crises. An important partner in developing the course this year was the agency M4ID based in Helsinki.
2007 case was developed together with Amnesty International – Finland
Tuli & Savu
Layout for a poetry magazine Tuli & Savu in collaboration with Ulla Eronen and Jenni Viitanen.
Photo: Marina Ekroos.
Magazine Design Program
Magazine Design program is a cross-disciplinary and interactive minor studies course where the students are encouraged to play an active role. Students will acquire practical and analytical skills in creating media concepts, of visual communication processes, creative planning and problem solving, design management, understanding of users and audiences and in presentation skills.
Ydinlehti New Wave magazine redesign
Multidisciplinary student team renewed the print magazine and created a tablet publication for Ydin magazine. The project included research, concept design, renewal of the visual language, new structure, logo and photo planning. The technical solution was based on the joint layout for different platforms. Students created the first issue of the tablet version and a model for continuous publishing.
Team: Iina Lievonen, Simo Ortamo, Martina Babišová and Luyi Ma
Manhattan Story Mashup
An urban Storytelling Game combining mobile phones, the web and a large public screen into interactive, collaborative street art.
Manhattan Story Mashup is an urban storytelling game based on real-time interaction between mobile and web users. In the game, stories written in the game’s open web site are illustrated by street players taking photos with camera phones on the streets of New York. The best resulting stories are displayed on eleven large public screens in Times Square and in the Web. The game was deployed with 184 players moving around Manhattan for 1,5 hours, shooting 3142 photos in total. At the same time 150 people were writing 115 stories in the web using a specifically designed storytelling tool.
Manhattan Story Mashup was an industry collaboration project between Nokia Research center and Media Lab's doctoral student Jürgen Scheible as the creative director of the project.
Watch the video in Youtube (youtube.com)
City Sets in the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 programme
The City Sets education, research and urban media art project has officially been selected as a part of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 programme. The project started as a multidisciplinary education and research development project of the Aalto University Schools of Art and Design and Technology, the Departments of Media and Architecture, in 2010.
More info: Crucible website
Café 2010
Students of photography documented contemporary café culture in Helsinki during the summer of 2010.
The project was a collaboration with the Hotel and Restaurant Museum. The aim was not just to create an exhibition, but also to document this contemporary cultural phenomena for future research use.
More info: professor Merja Salo
Media Lab projects can be found on the Lab's own website (medialab.aalto.fi).