This is my wild portfolio, I hope
you’ll enjoy it.

I am a graphic & UX designer by day, for 20+ years now.
The cool things I do at my awesome day job, are in my official portfolio.
LinkedIn profile

My pieces in URF at 26.7.-7.8.!

Big girl, with a black sense of humour & a love for weird people and staffies.

You’ll never see me without lipstick.

(By the way: Illustration of my head in navigation and footer by Heini Kekki)

“If I would summarize Helena in one word, it would be Efficient. Totally!”

— Aki, colleague from my proper job

Curriculum Vitae

Solo shows

7/2024 FLOWER DIARY vol. 2
Kuopio Market Hall, Rosebud

3/2024 POLYVALENT
Huvila, Järvenpää

2-4/2024 FLOWER DIARY vol. 1
Daddy Greens, Helsinki

9-10/2023 FLOWER DIARY vol. 1
Pisto-Gallery, Vantaa

6/2023 FLOWER DIARY vol. 1
Kuopio Market Hall, Rosebud

1/2023 FLASHBACKS OF MY AUDIENCE
Central railways station metro station digi screens and Laterna Magica, Helsinki

8/2022 & 12/2021 GODDESSES OF THE KALEVALA
Miniature radio play with photo exhibition
at Culture House Martinus & Mårbacka Experience, Vantaa

Group shows

7-8/2024 Uuden ajan rakentamisen festivaali, URF, Kerava

11-12/2023 Annual Show, Vantaa Photo Club, Vantaa-Info, Vantaa

11-12/2023 Wonderland, private event, Tampere

6/2023 Harmony & distortion, Vantaa Photo Club, Tauko-gallery, Helsinki

5/2023 Vantaa Adult Education Centre, art group exhibition

4/2023 Central organisation of Finnish camera clubs annual exhibition in Oulu

11/2022 Vantaa Adult Education Centre, art group exhibition

Merch

Flower Diary postcards available at Kuopio Art Museum Shop.

Memberships & responsibilities

2024 member, Ornamo. Finland’s largest community of design professionals.

2023-24 member, Vantaa Photo Club, Vantaa

2024 Publicist, KuumArt. Art association, Central Uusimaa

2022-23 Vice President, Tila & toiminta

2021 Chairwoman, Bubut

2021 & 2022 Event producer, Kinotease –burlesque documentary night, Rekolan Kino, Vantaa

Grants

The Central Association of Finnish Photographic Organizations, Finnfoto

2023 Fall Polyvalent
2022 Spring Flashbacks of my audience

What have I done in my basic life?

1993-1996
Culture producer & graphic designer

Culture producer studies in Mikkeli. Did night shifts at a local grill. I’ve heard all the jokes, trust me. Digital graphic studies in Lahti, LAB Institute of Design and Fine Arts.

1999-today
Love my day job!

Graphic, UI/UX & service designer a.k.a AD, visual & product designer etc. Making sure everything looks pretty and useable, basically making people’s lives easier. I hope.

2021
Cannes Golden Lion

My purchase (Omat ostot) service, created for the Finnish retail giant S Group (my role as a one of the visual / UX-designers).

2022-
Starting a tiny business

We have been designing product with my husband for 18 years now, but they all were crappy crap. Now, finally we have a product we believe in, see the results soon yikes!

2023
Dreaming about a country house

I have a lot of dreams: never smoking again. I need 2 more dogs and a flock of chickens. Dreaming about sleeping nights through and to have a big yard my dogs to run. Health & love. World peace.

2024
Bachelor of Culture and Arts, Designer

Finishing my Lahti studies in Kuopio Savonia. I will graduate in 2024. My hometown, very happy about that!

Stage adjacent thingies (at this century)

2004-2007
Stand up -comedy

I started doing stand up because my friend comedian Pekka Jalava said so. So he trained me and a bunch of others, I did that in the evenings until my mother passed away and I thought that I will never laugh again.

But I did, so even still I have been doing it a little bit, on my friend’s parties and such. It never really goes away, the urge to drop a brick.

2011-2016
Comedy Choir

After stand up I still wanted to go on stage and make people laugh, so I started a comedy choir Hellä Sointu & Sopimattomat Seuralaiset which became bigger and bigger. I think we had 42 members at one point and a lot of gigs. Super fun, but I still don’t have a singing voice!

2019-2020
Podcast

Me and my friend Kare Kuronen started to exercise and wanted to do a podcast about it. Because we’re funny and we thought that someone might get a kick out of it.

We got the best soundman and writer for the job Aki Kiminki, so did that for a while, but then came corona. Anyway, fun times and we learned a lot! Overall Kantturasalonki got over 10 000 listeners and over 15 hours of sound us slapping our gums. Oh, and also listen to Aki’s Pilipalisaatio!

Hosting and glittering on stage as BonBon Giggles.

I fell in love with burlesque in January 2018, then started dancing a year after that. Performing at my own birthday party about a year after that. Just absolutely fell hard with the whole scene, the art, the people, supportive community, creativeness, possibilities of performing, values, music and glitter.

After that I have been a chairwoman of the board in Bubut association, stage manager, host and a burlesque performer.

Photos by: Olli Lempinen, Johanna Sandborg, Timo Kirkkala, Janne Oravisto and Björn Fagerholm
Illustration: Tuuli Juntunen
Calligraphy logo: Sari loves art