Let’s not be boring

“I love colour and I love stories,” says Minna, “especially ones that evoke strong emotions. I’m curious about everything between the earth and the sky.” In her free times she feeds her curiosity with music, movies and social media. She feeds her creativity by always holding a pen in her hand. “I am an illustrator at heart. I am always drawing. The corner of every page in every notebook has a doodle of some sort on it. It is how I process the world around me.”

But don’t mistake a keen eye for beauty for something superficial. Minna’s deepest passions include planning, developing, and producing imaginative and impactful materials for her clients. It is always important to bring a fresh, inquisitive attitude to every project. “Strong feelings are good. Sometimes, the visuals we work with aren’t inherently very attractive, such as product photographs. But I hate being boring, so I always try to bring things to life in interesting new ways,” she explains. “Luckily our clients are frequently open to new ideas and trust our judgement.”

And even though Minna describes herself as a bit of an introvert, she is viewed by her colleagues as sharp-witted, ranking among the funniest people to work with… just as long as you speak and understand sarcasm and dry humour fluently. “Even for an introvert like myself, having people around is important. A positive working environment with like-minded creative thinkers is good for all of us,” she explains.

Creativity is never the wrong approach

Of course, Minna’s goal is always to provide clients with the most impactful and relevant materials that she can create. From large branding projects to clever little digital or social media executions, her critical and imaginative eye brings new ideas to the briefs that are delivered to her desk. She also keeps note of current developments in her craft, looking at what’s new in the fields of popular culture, graphic design and marketing and critically determining how useful it might be in her work.

“In general, I think the state of graphic design is quite healthy at the moment. There is really interesting work out there. But I feel a bit like advertising in general is in a bit of a rut. People should have more courage to try new things. That’s the attitude that I try to have and suggest to other people – creativity is never bad.”

Although her talents are well-rounded, there are certain tasks that Minna prefers. “I actually really enjoy working with video at the moment. An image can tell a thousand words but it’s easier to tell a compelling story through video. And creating interesting, powerful stories is what our work really involves.”