For the release party of music artist Goldielocks—following her breakthrough year and standout success at UMK—we designed a poster built around her primary typeface, Windsor Roman, with Windsor BT’s Light Condensed for the smaller texts. As the event took place close to Halloween, the concept introduced a subtle, atmospheric Halloween influence layered onto the official promotional and press imagery for her debut album, Two of a Kind. The album marks Goldielocks’ emergence as one of Finland’s most promising new international pop artists.

Graphic design, typeface visualization, and album visuals were created by Jirka Väätäinen, with photography by lumiilo. The typeface for the album titles and tracklist is Podium Sharp, which name suits the stage-craving aura and danceable mood on this album and cover.

About the working-class vibe, showing that even when times are tough, we can still find joy and strength in laughter and music.

This showcase highlights the art direction for Finnish rapper Aste’s releases from 2023 to 2025, leading up to his album Nuori & Kuolematon.

A key element in the visual identity is the use of Sequel 100 Black – a bold, modern typeface that reflects Aste’s strong presence and the mix of hip hop and pop in his music. The typeface gives the artwork a clear and confident look, inspired by the clean aesthetics of 1990s Finnish pop and hip hop visuals.

We used Sequel 100 Black consistently to build a recognizable style across covers, social media, and videos. It brings structure and energy, much like Aste’s lyrics — direct, emotional, and powerful.

For the single “Duunarit”, we added DNS Gibsons Two, a more technical and industrial-looking font. It fits the theme of the song, which connects everyday work life with music. While Sequel stands for identity and legacy, Gibson Two brings contrast and highlights the working-class vibe of the song.

Together, these two fonts tell a visual story: strong, clean, and rooted in both past and present – just like Aste’s music.

About dealing with inner turmoil, finding energy, and pushing through life’s chaos. The phrase “chakrat on sekasin” emphasizes this struggle.

About the energetic celebration of summer romance. A nostalgic 90s techno-pop inspired cover.

Strength and resilience of the working class, where music and art rise from even the most industrial, blue- or red-collar roots

Nuori & Kuolematon album tracklist

Nuori & Kuolematon album art

“ANDRÉ” is a new interpretation of Marita Taavitsainen’s old pop song.

TT Supermolot Neue is the signature font of SaiPa. From Wikipedia:

Saimaan Pallo (SaiPa) is an ice hockey team in the Finnish Liiga. They play their home games at Kisapuisto in Lappeenranta, Finland. SaiPa has many nicknames, such as “The Sputniks”, “Sputnik”, “Miracle of the East” and “Eastern Giant.”

The all-caps brush script seen in this application and the one shown below is Flood.

Helsinki-based design agency Fredag employed Calderón’s typeface Around B as a central visual element in the branding of Alex & Ines, a new restaurant and café located inside the Sokos mall in Lahti, Finland. The typeface appears prominently across signage, menus, promotional materials, neon displays, social media, and printed collateral like gift cards. Its soft, rounded geometry and friendly tone reinforce the warm, approachable atmosphere of the dining experience.

The script logo appears to be custom. On social media, Around B is supported by an unidentified monospaced typeface [see comments].

Rock, Paper, Scissors is the book designed for Kiasma, the Finnish Museum of Contemporary Art, for their yearly collection exhibition. The exhibition of the same title focuses on the materiality in contemporary art. The theme revolves around the question: why does contemporary art look the way it does? The material used and how it’s worked often plays a central role in the meaning of the artwork. The exhibition offers insights into the diverse meanings of materials, questions of authorship and technique, and ways of perception. There’s always more to a material than meets the eye.

The task was to embody the theme of materiality into the exhibition publication. The theme was approached both concretely and conceptually. Concretely, materiality is reflected in the tactility of the print and finishing techniques. Conceptually, stylistic choices related to the preservation, archiving, and conservation of artworks were used.

The idea of archiving is reflected in the typography, layout, and print finishing. For the paper selection, materials were chosen to reflect the participatory nature of the works, which require the viewer’s active involvement or even physical touch. The materials are fragile and deteriorate over time, just like any object in our physical environment. In the museum’s collection, efforts are made to control the aging of materials by preserving artworks in optimal conditions and conserving them. This concept was integrated into the design.

In terms of typography, the use of lists, numbering, and a typewriter-like font style were central to the design. The variation in paper choices further emphasizes the materiality theme of the exhibition. The treatment of paper as a material itself was key – embossing, matte finishes, and transparency were used to highlight the theme. The publication invites the reader to explore it physically, offering a sensory experience beyond the visual.

Telka from Ultra Kuhl and Maison Neue Mono from Milieu Grotesque are used for the Grand One 2025, Finland’s largest and most significant digital competition. The large number one could be either lettering or taken from a yet unidentified font.

From Grand One's website (translated):

The goal is to highlight Finnish excellence in digital marketing and service development. The Grand One has been organized since 2002 and has established itself as the most prestigious competition in its field.

Grand One awards work under three main themes: Services & Design, Data & Innovation, and Marketing & Communications. There are 20 individual categories and all companies, organizations, and freelancers operating in Finland can submit their work.

The works were evaluated by a 46-member jury of top experts in the field.

Grand One culminates in a gala where the best works are awarded. The gala has been held in Kattilahalli for the past few years. In the spring of 2024, there were over 550 party guests. You can watch the gala atmosphere in the video at the bottom of the page.

Before Nokia made itself a name as a telecommunications and mobile telephony brand, the Finnish company was active in different industries. Originally established as a pulp mill in 1865, it had long been associated with rubber and cables. Since 1967, they’ve been manufacturing rubber boots. In 1990, this branch split into a separate company, Nokian Jalkineet (“Nokian Footwear”). The ad shown here is from 1972, five years after Finnish Rubber Works merged with the Finnish Cable Company and Nokia Company, forming the Nokia Corporation.

“Go-happy fashion” is shown in Amelia with alternating glyph colors. The mid-1960s typeface by Stan Davis is also used for the product names, “go-joy” and “go-gay”. The slogan, “Saapastelkaa uuteen villiin tahtiin!” (“Step into a new wild rhythm!”), is set in Futura Extra Bold Condensed, the small copy is in Helvetica.

The front features a big red heart, accompanied by the text “Tee syrjähyppy” (“do a side jump” = “have a fling”) in caps from Helvetica and Poster.

A book of matches as an advertisement from a Finnish party-dress shop in the center of Helsinki called Syrjähyppy (“affair”, literally “side jump”).

On the inside, there is a recipe for the Syrjähyppy Cocktail and also an advertisment for a restaurant called Budapest on the same street.

The back with the addresses and phone numbers features the same typefaces as the front.

The inside with the recipe additionally has Alexandra for the restaurant’s name, two weights of Permanent, and tracked-out Commercial Script.

Poster for the Kotelo group exhibition, designed by Studio Lars Högström. Original illustrations by Helena Lundahl.

Typefaces used are Manege by The Temporary State and Store Norske Graut by Skriftkompani. “KOTELO” is in WTC Modnoc by Borutta Group.

The show is on display at Galleria K in Vantaa, Finland, from 31 May to 30 June 2024.

It’s not clear if the outlined letters are custom drawn or from a font.

From design studio Werklig:

The Pirkkalan-range stands for cooperation with local producers and a hand-picked range of high-quality products. Owner of K-Citymarket Pirkkala, Petri Putila, constructed the product line to distinguish it from the hypermarket’s other products and to always bring new delightful things for customers to try and taste. Preparing the products and having a coffee roastery and an ice cream factory on the premises, was a must. Werklig created a private label brand and packaging to stand out from the wide range of other brands on offer. To inject some artisan food culture into the aisles of a hypermarket.

The logotype is set in Sud. Text on the packages uses Garton Italic.

For the debut album Avain, symbolizing the key to the Finnish rapper Lil Yayo’s musical universe, we delved into the captivating realm of Kamui Oscuro’s art. This album unfolds as a transcendental journey through an ethereal and dreamlike soundscape, weaving together profound lyrics and hypnotic melodies that enchant the listener.

Drawing inspiration from his previous collaboration with Julian Grönberg on the single “Ei Voi Unohtaa,” the album’s design maintains a thematic connection. However, this time, the title, tracklist, and information banners are meticulously crafted in a sharp and eerie font named Sinistre, designed by French artist Lazy Dog, also known as Jules Durand.

Lil Yayo first garnered attention on SoundCloud in 2017, swiftly ascending to cult status within the underground music scene. His national recognition by Universal Music came through his recording of Tinze’s song “BaeBae,” featuring Jannika B., solidifying his impact and influence in the music industry.

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

Back in the spring of 2016 Kaisa and I had a brilliant idea.

Well, actually we had two brilliant ideas. They were 1. To ride our bikes across North America, from East to West, and 2. To raise money for the trip by making and selling a punk zine about bike travel.

”But why a punk zine of all things? There can’t be much money in that”, you might exclaim. And you would be absolutely right. But doing things that are rational has rarely been a guiding principle for the two of us. So yes, a punk zine it was to be.

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

At this point I had also grown somewhat tired of the meticulous perfectionism that came with desktop publishing. There was a small part of the otherwise so very pedantic me that viewed such an ability to fully control the visual environment as both sterile and impersonal. And while I know this isn’t a very original observation to make I still longed for the more tactile ways of designing.

This project offered me the ideal opportunity to make use of all the old type catalogues and printed ephemera I had amassed during decades of unorganized and mostly stochastic collecting and turn them into something new. In the process I also ended up spending a hundred euros on an old Xerox machine our school was going to ditch anyway, and to the dismay of my brother placing it in his garage.

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

I began by whipping out my old Letraset catalogue and starting to blow up the typefaces I thought I could use in the project. Turns out this included almost all of the typefaces presented. As for the Letraset catalogue, this was the very book that incidentally ignited my love for typography when I first came across it in 1986. I simply couldn’t believe that so many wonderful letterforms existed in this world. An insight I still cling onto some three decades later.

In making the zine I set up a couple of rules for myself: 1. All type (with the exception of the body copy) would be set by hand, meaning it would be cut and pasted, and 2. The tools used would be analogue (with the exception of a concession I made enabling me to use digital cameras when needed), 3. No rulers or other measuring devices would be allowed, everything had to be eyeballed, 4. Fonts would be used to one’s heart’s content and combined without too much thought or prejudice, and finally 5. Everything would be in black and white, because, well, punk is black and white!

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

With these simple guidelines I sat down and began designing, allowing the process and the mistakes I made along the way guide me towards some form of an end result. The fun part was that for once I had no clear picture in my mind of what was to happen. Working in this way was intuitive and liberating, but even more importantly helped me realize how much of the transparency we associate with computer-generated design is illusory. The tool always controls its user whether they are aware of it or not. And if that’s not a punk rock insight then I don’t know what would be!

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

While working on the zine we realized that the project wasn’t as difficult or time-consuming as we had thought, so we decided to up our game: There would be a tape to go along with the zine! The problem was neither of us played any instruments or sang. (You’d be hard pressed to find a more musically challenged person than myself!)

So we wrote a ton of letters to bands that we thought would be cool to work with, and to our great joy almost all of them responded with enthusiasm and a promise to participate. This was turning out to be way easier than we would have anticipated!

The full tape can still be listened to over on the otherwise slightly less well-functioning project site, should you feel the need to hear some phenomenal Finnish punk and hardcore.

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

Next question to sort out was who on Earth would still produce tapes in 2016? Well, through some obscure connections we got in touch with a lay Christian preacher who had a small tape production facility set up in his basement in the suburbs of East Helsinki. He would mainly record his own sermons, but he also occasionally sold his services to outsiders. And we were definitely as outsiders as it gets!

And while we’re coming up with new stuff, why not include a poster? And some envelopes to keep all the things together! And some stationery, should we want to write someone. Once again our initially somewhat reasonable project began, somewhat unsurprisingly, to snowball.

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

But all of a sudden it was all done! We printed up some 300 copies of both the zine and the tape, and I don’t think we’ve ever sold out anything we produced as quickly. Yay! Unfortunately our goal to collect funds for our trip was a a non-starter as the production costs far exceeded what we had hoped for.

So realistically we probably ended up losing more money than we made on this venture. But even this is not certain, as we really didn’t keep track of our finances. Still, the whole project should still be considered a grand success, because we had a ton of fun doing it!

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Christoffer Leka. License: All Rights Reserved.

Finnish rapper Costi, also known as Tuomas Kostiainen, released his second studio album, Coast to Costi, under PME Records. He began his musical journey in 2016 and officially launched his career in 2021,

In late 2021, Costi introduced his debut EP Safari through PME, offering melodic drill and emotionally resonant lyrics. Notably, the singles “Movie” and “Robben,” the latter named after the Dutch soccer legend, have collectively garnered over a million streams and numerous radio plays, showcasing Costi’s confidence in his unique style.

Costi’s recent album covers, such as for Limbo, are a reflection of his inspiration drawn from the captivating realm of fairytales, entwined with artistic aesthetics reminiscent of Michelangelo's masterpieces and the whimsical clockwork of Alice in Wonderland. Yet, for his forthcoming album, he is embarking on a creative shift, delving into the enduring narrative of David versus Goliath, while infusing it with a unique Western twist.

When selecting the typeface for this cover and the track list, Celtic Garamond the 2nd emerged as the ideal choice, both in appearance and resonance, seamlessly infusing a medieval ambiance into the world of the cover art.

Popular is an agency founded in 2005, from which you can book advertising models and speakers for your production. Piia Kankare, founder and owner of Popular, worked for a long time as a casting director and shooting organiser.

Popular picked Norman Stencil for its branding, website, and social media, using different weights and styles of the family.

On the website you can see how Norman Stencil has been used for the menu and for the header, mostly in black on coloured backgrounds. It is paire with Work Sans for text and smaller elements.

Vain Elämää is one of Finland’s most popular TV shows, where artists release singles of other artists with their own twist. This year, the show celebrates its 14th consecutive season. One of the featured artists was Finnish rapper Hätä Miika, taking on this task with a cover of “Ei Yksikään”, a song by CMX.

The artwork of his release shows a photograph of the rapper, paired with bold typography. Plakat from Out of the Dark track titles in a simple and minimalistic style; his stage name is modestly set in good old Times, reinforcing the boldness of the headlines.

TeeMaa is a Helsinki-based tea house and a shop where you can also buy tea-related products and accessories. In accordance with the interior design, the branding by Tino Nyman presents both the sophistication and the playfulness of TeeMaa with the use of delicate colors and intricate text compositions. The identity uses Panama Italic and BL Arctic for the logotype, Cucina (neretta and corsiva) and Lateral for the titles and information.

A beautiful use of our Guess What font, for Happy Soup, a new product line by Happy Food & People, makers of innovative vegan food. The sans used for the soup’s name (in Finnish, English, Swedish) and other information is Interstate. Design by Helsinki-based agency Popular.

Historian jännät naiset – tarinoita, joita et tiennyt olevan (“Extraordinary women of history – stories you didn’t know existed”) is a performance piece presented by Spindrift, an all female award winning Nordic theatre company. It’s based on Maria Pettersson’s book of the same title.

The photo, which was taken by the designer and photographer Julian Grönberg, resembles the pose on the book cover. The colors of the lettering are more modern, as is the lettering in modified Cavatine. With its decorative letters, it creates a feminine, empowering image for the entire visual identity including the poster and the flyer. Big Caslon is used for the subtitle. ABC Whyte, a clear and modern sans typeface, was chosen to set the information and texts inside the flyer.

After a show at the Etelä-Karjala Museum in Lappeenranta on February 11, the performance will be shown at Avoimet Ovet Theatre, Helsinki (February 24 and March 22) and at Lapin maakuntamuseo, Rovaniemi (March 25 and 26).

Cover art for the latest single “Paratiis” by La Mikael featuring Saketti. The idea of this cover was to transform the look of Rembrandt or other painters into a modern rap cover like Tyler’s Flower Boy. The goats depicted are often colloquially referred to as the “greatest of all time” which, as in this painting-like image, also represents Paradise as the best imagination of all time.

Bavicka takes over the headline and decorates the cover with a nostalgic look. For the names Coconat was picked, a font with a more modern but classic look.

Finntastic Festival is organized by the Finnish Institute together with several partners, and will take place at Stockholm’s Finnish Institute as part of Kulturnatt Stockholm in April 2022. From the website (translated):

Finntastic festival is a shameless mix of languages, styles and identities. The festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with magical realism, heavy-glam and graffiti riots. A tribute to one’s own voice, raw love and revolt. Come as you are – or as you want to be!

The visual identity was designed by Lari Mörö, using Gikit by Benoît Bodhuin and Scarla by Jungmyung Lee/Helsinki Type Studio.