competition for Finnish professional college students named

Reusing the old is better (fin. Vanhassa vara parempi),

which took place on 26th-28th April 2022 in Tuusula, Finland

Goal

The goal of this project was to develop a strong visual identity and branding for the SAKUstars 2022 competition, with a focus on creating a memorable digital presence. My digital painting, “Owl,” was selected as the official visual symbol, representing the competition while contributing to its overall branding and graphic direction.

Research & Concept Development

To ensure a cohesive and recognizable brand identity, I worked closely with the main project manager, conducting a personal interview to determine the competition’s graphic direction. This process led to the selection of a lilac-based color palette, complemented by green, yellow, blue, and black, creating a visually striking and unified design system.

Viktoriya Mikhaylova´s owl image for AKUstars 2022

Design & Implementation

My role in the project involved the creation of a comprehensive set of digital and print materials, ensuring brand consistency across multiple platforms and formats. My key contributions included:

  • Branding & Identity Design: Competition logo, color scheme, and visual assets.
  • Print & Digital Media: Posters, postcards, banners, price tags, stickers, and merchandise prints (t-shirts, hoodies, caps, bags, sunglasses, and water bottles).
  • Social Media & Animation: Custom graphics and animated content for SAKUstars 2022 -webpage, Instagram and Facebook.
  • Presentation & Document Templates: PowerPoint and Word templates for official use.
  • Web Design & Development: A WordPress web page (sakustars.fi/2022) to provide competition details and updates.

Impact & Outcome

By maintaining a strong and cohesive visual identity, I helped enhance the competition’s brand recognition and user engagement. The digital assets ensured a seamless experience across social media, print materials, and online platforms, making SAKUstars 2022 visually appealing and memorable.

This project allowed me to apply my UI/UX design, branding, and web development skills while collaborating with a diverse team to create a consistent and engaging user experience across multiple touchpoints.

SAKUstars 2022 visual products gallery

You can view additional products that I designed for the SAKUstars 2022 competition in the attached PDF file:

Embedded SAKUstars 2022 website

Challenges

One of the main challenges I faced during the SAKUstars 2022 project was balancing creativity with brand consistency, ensuring the visual identity remained cohesive across multiple platforms. Adapting designs for both digital and print formats required careful attention to technical specifications.

Collaborating with a diverse team to integrate feedback while maintaining a unified vision was another challenge. Additionally, creating an identity that resonated with a broad audience of Finnish professional college students required careful consideration of their varying preferences.

The web design was tricky as well, ensuring the WordPress site was both visually appealing and functional across devices. Maintaining engagement across all touchpoints, from physical materials to social media, was crucial to keeping participants and audiences connected throughout the competition. These challenges helped me refine my creative and strategic thinking to deliver a cohesive experience.

Tools

  • Adobe Creative Cloud: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, PremierePro, After Effects
  • MS Office 365: Outlook, Teams, Word and PowerPoint
  • WordPress