Graphic design · Editorial design · Visual identity
Visual identities
& publications
Different subjects ask for different voices — from the intimacy of a book to the instant recognition of a mark.
FieldsIdentity & editorial
FormatsPrint & digital
ApproachConcept to detail
SelectionAcross the practice
Graphic design is not a house style applied repeatedly. It is a way of finding the form already latent in the subject.
This selection brings together books, identities, packaging and individual graphic works. Their visual languages vary deliberately, but the working method remains consistent: understand the context, establish a clear structure and reduce the idea until every element has a reason to be there.
01 · Books & editorial design
Rhythm across
the spread
Editorial design gives research a pace and a physical character. Type, image, white space and sequence guide the reader without competing with the material.
Funkis Karjalassa — a restrained editorial system for architectural history.
Printed matter
A book is
an object
The cover establishes an atmosphere; the grid holds complex material together; the page turn creates time. Publication design works at all three scales at once.
02 · Applied graphics
Identity in
use
Elli
A friendly, student-facing digital home for practical housing information.
Visit live website ↗
03 · Objects, concepts & experiments
The smell of
the city
Competition-winning museum shop concept
The brief was to imagine a product for the Helsinki City Museum shop. The proposal was both familiar and impossible: The Fragrance of Helsinki Metro Since 1982 — the unmistakable atmosphere of the underground captured in a small tin.
The concept won the competition. It was never produced, because a partner capable of manufacturing the scent could not be found. That unresolved ending remains part of the work: a credible product balanced on the edge of absurdity.
04 · Selected marks
Small forms,
distinct voices
A mark must survive reduction, repetition and changing surroundings. The selection shows deliberately different answers to different organisations.
The connecting idea
Whether the result is a logo, a bottle or a 300-page book, the task is the same: give an idea a form that feels inevitable.
Scope
Concept development, art direction, graphic design, typography, illustration, layout and visualisation by Samu Aarnio. Selected works shown across multiple years and client contexts.