A Creative Mind behind our logo

The designer behind the logo of SocEntYouth project is a young lady Riikka Hellsten. Riikka participated in the Digi-workshop organized by our project partner, DILA, during spring 2023. The Digi-workshop, supported by the European Social Fund as part of the REACT-EU program, aims to empower young individuals from a disadvantaged background below the age of 29 by enhancing their digital work skills. Through this program, participants from the Päijät-Häme region have the opportunity to engage as interns or volunteers, receiving support to develop their digital skills for future work or studies.

The collaboration between Riikka and our project proved to be a remarkable synergy between both programs. Riikka was able to utilize her skills to contribute to a meaningful real-life task as part of our project. The logo she created not only visually represents the essence and significance of our work but also embodies the transformative journey that Riikka and other participants embarked upon. It is important to emphasize that this collaboration was voluntary, with Riikka generously offering her time and expertise without any financial compensation.

We had the pleasure of making a short interview with Riikka unveiling the challenges and joys of creativity in action.

Why did you decide to participate in the Digi-workshop this spring and how it helped you develop your digital skills?

I heard that in Digi-workshop I could participate in various creative projects and I became interested. I got to design posters, ads and also logo for this Youth Entrepreneurship project which was nice. I already knew how to use Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign so it was easy to jump in to work. 

Was this participation helpful for you and how do you believe the skills you developed can be applied in a professional setting?

I got some new work for my portfolio from projects that I was involved in and I believe them to be beneficial in the future. It was also nice to be able to design and create materials by myself.

How did you approach the design process when creating the logo for ? Can you walk us through the steps you took and the creative decisions you made?

Jari introduced me to this new project and we discussed the values and the direction of this Youth Entrepreneurship project. Based on that I started making sketches and thinking about themes and colors. 

Then I received feedback on the sketches and we ended up with an option with the tree and a green color scheme. The tree represented growth and the greenery represented renewal. When the final name of the project was chosen, I started to plan the layout of the text and a few different versions were made. And that’s pretty much how the logo was created. 

What challenges did you encounter while working on the logo design, and how did you overcome them?

The long name of the project caused some difficulties but by trying different versions of it I was able to solve it and I think it turned out well! 

How has your experience with the Digi-workship and logo design influenced your career aspirations and goals? What are your plans for utilizing your skills and experiences moving forward?

The thought that I want to work in the creative field in the future became stronger while I was at the Digi-workshop. I’ll also start studying User Experience and User Interface design at the LAB University of Applied Sciences in August so there are new and exciting things ahead.