Graphic designer Aarni Ylinen has an extensive and diverse career in art direction and visual arts, collaborating with artists and organizations of various sizes across multiple industries.
Aarni has worked with respectable advertising agencies, as well as global manufacturing, consulting and tech companies up to Fortune Global 500 level. He has also been involved in designing and providing design consulting services for operators such as the Foundation for Finnish Inventions, as well as a large number of smaller-scale projects with start-ups and private entrepreneurs.
His work ranges from designing security-sensitive online banking user interfaces for a leading financial group to designing album packagings for highly experimental marginal art music. Or from UI concepts for innovative future digital sales tools to collaborating with up-and-coming Emma* nominated progressive jazz musicians.
He has experience in creating key presentations at the CEO and top management levels and working on promotional imagery for a TV series on a major network with well-known celebrities. Then again from setting tiny typographic details on a restaurant menu for the Finnish adaptation of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares to working on a visual design of a international trade fair floor in Amsterdam or designing visuals on a large, modern, glassy, 2-story office front in downtown Stockholm. Just to give few examples of diversity of clientele and scale variation of projects.
Aarni’s background is in graphic design and visual arts. His studies include art high school in Lapinlahti in the northern Savonia region, graphic design and typography studies at Pekka Halonen’s Academy in Tuusula, and design and art-related studies at the Helsinki-based Aalto University and in few other smaller educational institutions.
”Personally the crossing point of design and art has always been fascinating to me. The area where these two worlds meet and sometimes conveniently mix is captivating. Design thinking is more disciplined and customer and use case oriented, whereas the art world is more open-minded and leans on self-expression – expression that is based on ones own perception and a vision of the reality surrounding us. Both sides of that coin are engaging to me. If we can use an analogy like that.
I’m also very much into the history of design and art, especially pop art. I’ve been a comic book collector, a small scale art collector, an avid music listener, and a collector since the early 1990’s. I’ve also worked with a company specialized in Asian pop-art, anime and manga culture, which was riveting both on a professional and a personal level.
Emerging new forms of visual design, popular culture and technology, such as NFT’s, digital collectibles and other new digital assets, are captivating to me as well. NFT’s, for example, even with all the bad press in recent years, might still be the future where we are all slowly headed to in one form or another.
I recently got chosen to be part of a research community with a New Zealand based digital collectibles app VeVe. VeVe is collaborating with entertainment giants likes of Disney, Marvel, DC Comics, and many other industry leaders to bring new innovative digital assets in the hands of collectors and the general public.
With my VeVe NDA freshly signed I’m now ready for the small occasional research and feedback tasks that might come along with all the other work projects starting soon. Future – here we come.”
* (Finnish Grammy equivalent)
—
Work with…
ABB
Accenture
Agnico Eagle
Eclipse Music
Foundation for Finnish Inventions
Levykauppa Äx - Record Store X
McCann Helsinki
Metso
Mirum Agency
Moskito TV
Nokia
OP-Pohjola
Orion
Otavamedia
Outokumpu
S-Pankki
Salesframe
Store Enso
Suunto
Sync Sauna
Telia
The Finnish Association for the Welfare of Older Adults
Tietoevry
UPM
Urumi
Veikkaus
…
Accolades
Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) Award
— Eclipse Music
Best Graphic Design and Advertising in Finland
Integrated Marketing Communications
Golden Award — Record Store X
(Vuoden huiput — Kultahuippu — Levykauppa Äx)
Professional Of The Year
— Tietoevry (Digital Innovations)
Art direction and graphic design for…
EMA Award* Nominee Susanna Aleksandra
Emma Award** Nominee Ensemble Gamut!
Emma Award Nominee Mortality
Emma Award Nominee Jussi Lehtonen Quartet
Emma Award Nominee Hot Heros
Emma Award Nominee Teemu Viinikainen
Emma Award Nominee Elifantree
Emma Award Nominee Artturi Rönkä + Daniel Sommer
Emma Award Winner Aki Rissanen (Aleatoric)
Yrjö Prize Winner*** Juhani Aaltonen
Yrjö Prize Winner Raoul Björkenheim
Yrjö Prize Winner Manuel Dunkel
Yrjö Prize Winner Kari Ikonen
Yrjö Prize Winner Esa Pietilä
Yrjö Prize Winner Jussi Lehtonen
Teosto and Yrjö Prize Winner Mikko Hassinen
Teosto Prize Nominee Harri Kuusijärvi
Ted Curson Award**** Winner Pauli Lyytinen
Pori Jazz Rising Star Award Winner Kaisa Mäensivu
* Estonian Grammy equivalent
** Finnish Grammy equivalent
*** Jazz Musician Of The Year
**** Pori Jazz Musician Of The Year