For me, the Art Director position opened at a perfect time. I was on hiatus from my business studies to work on my visual communication design degree in Metropolia, and was on a hunt for a graphic design internship. I had had the KY office in mind for a while as a good combination of both of my studies, and in the end, I even decided to continue in the position for an extra year.
As a work environment, KY has definitely been special. In addition to being optimal for Aalto studies and campus services in terms of location and flexibility, the people and student activities surrounding it create such a lively and ever-changing atmosphere to take part in. Even when I hadn’t studied in Aalto in a long while and didn’t know many people here anymore, it was easy to become part of the team.
The Art Director job itself is very free yet demanding. You are the sole person responsible for the visual direction of KY and Kylteri magazine, which keeps things interesting. Workdays can vary quite a lot, and within the Art Director title you wear a lot of hats since you are the only proper graphic designer in the office. Most often you sit shrimp-style at your laptop grinding daily tasks and bigger projects by yourself, and sometimes you participate in meetings to plan future projects together with others. Sometimes you draw and photograph and other times you communicate with volunteers and participate in office activities. To quote my predecessor Mirka: “Each work day, you’re whatever you need to be: Art Director, sure, but also Illustrator, Editorial Designer, Identity Designer, Photographer, Photo Editor, Printer–Laminator, and General Visual Knowledge Bank.” And boy, have I become familiar with all of these tasks. Especially with the office laminating machine and my constant struggles with the printer.
Not everyone who has been the Art Director in the past has been a KY student themselves. Some have studied design or similar and even graduated already. I would say that it’s a big benefit to have existing skills in graphic design work and Adobe tools, though those have not been mandatory before and some have learned in action. Visual eye is the most important thing, as well as time-management skills, eye for detail, and a creative mind.
It has been extremely rewarding to get to guide the work you do, make creative decisions, and see your self-made results in action all in one. This, on the other hand, has offered lots of challenges as you need to be the person in charge. Personally, I have definitely been able to explore many new ideas I hadn’t had the chance to execute before, and it’s been great to try things out without huge pressure.
Toast to creative freedom and active student life!
For any questions about the role or my experiences, you can send me a message. I’ll be happy to answer them :)
Saana Rauvala
saana.rauvala@ky.fi
TG: @kyartdirector
