Text and photos: Taneli Rantala
A Finnish-Londoner multidisciplinary approach to visual design
Suvi Savolainen has over 20 years of experience in the field of graphic design. Her year as an au pair in London turned into a foundations course in art and design, followed by a BA Honors study in graphic design the following year.
After 14 years as a graphic designer and art director, who sometimes did illustration, Savolainen decided to pursue master studies in illustration. Her studies took her back to London – she did her MA course at Camberwell College of Art (part of University of the Arts London).
Suvi returned to Finland for good at the end of 2020, ushered by a 9-month long period of covid related restrictions and lockdowns, and started her own business soon after. What prompted her to become an entrepreneur in her home country?
“With such a long career behind me, the next natural career step would have been to pursue a creative director role. However, from what I’ve heard, few in that role still engage in actual design work. I enjoy doing it myself, and as an entrepreneur, I still can” Suvi explains. “It’s also nice to be back in Helsinki. This city is the right size for me now.”
Creative mind boosts curiosity and desire to learn
The best aspects of entrepreneurship are its freedom and diversity. “Even though you have to wear many hats – and sometimes at once – I can still decide who I want to approach and work for,” Suvi says. “Being able to plan my own schedule daily, based on what feels best, is wonderful.”
Suvi’s approach to her work is very much multidisciplinary. Instead of pigeonholing into a specific style, she finds exploring different visual languages most interesting. “Diving into different visual worlds when working for a wide range of clients from different industries from the ground up is delightful. Sometimes the visual language required is minimal, other times more suitable tone of voice is one with multitude of bright colours, whimsical illustrations and so on. it’s the variety that I really love” Suvi shares.
Savolainen, who has now settled back in Finland, is about to start in Creve’s Volume! -program in English. Is there something that we could learn from abroad about internationalization? “We could take inspiration from the typical light-hearted confidence and unwavering self-assurance in one’s own competence from the Swedes. We could give up unnecessary humility and the notion that, as Finns, we are somehow outsiders.”
Speaking of learning – curiosity and a desire to learn seem to be common traits among entrepreneurs. “Skills must be constantly updated. Fortunately, I have a mind that enjoys learning new things. It can be exhausting, but a job with no challenges would be even more draining,” Suvi muses. “For example, regarding animation with After Effects, I initially studied it on my own from online tutorials every now and then, but recently, I also attended a ‘live’ training course and can now happily say that I know how to use the software properly and efficiently. I’ve also learned to create with AI this year.”
In the future, the solo entrepreneur is interested in collaborating on projects with colleagues. She also has another goal. “I just opened an online store for my more artistic works and want to make it profitable. A couple of sales have already happened,” Suvi smiles.
Follow Suvi Savolainen and read more:
suvisavolainen.com | Instagram | LinkedIn | Behance | Webshop
Empowering Solo Entrepreneurs through Volume!
The Volume! – Empowering Solo Entrepreneurs through Global Readiness -program offers free higher education in creative industries’ business and entrepreneurship, group consultations, workshops, and networking for solo entrepreneurs. We are publishing a series of entrepreneur stories from solo entrepreneurs participating in Volume.
The program is open until the end of 2024, running programs in both Finnish and English.
Learn more and sign up here: https://www.creve.fi/en/training-programs/
The Volume project is funded by the Continuous Learning and Employment Service Center, SECLE. The project is implemented by Humak / Creative Industry Business Service Creve from 1st January 2023 to 28th February 2025.
