Estonia

Markko Karu
Age: 33

My Job Title
Creative director, Velvet Creative Alliance
www.velvet.ee

Design Field
Graphic design

My Education
Estonian Art Academy, BA in industrial design

My Work
"During my first ten years as a designer, I came to realize that the most critical part in the design process is inspiring the client. One solution to that limitation is to become an entrepreneur, to be your own client! On the other hand, the world is full of design products, but they do not seem to win the battle once started by the arts and crafts movement. People (the clients among them!) do not appreciate design as a value in itself, they just buy whatever is affordable or available to them. Thus my design agenda became to guide those who already produce something towards more aesthetic, effective and ecologically reasonable solutions. Taking the role of a manager and consultant, I can help clients meet their goals more effectively, and also give my co-designers more inspiring tasks. Sometimes it is hard to ride two horses, being a designer and manager at the same time, although it has given me a lot of insight into business, people management and consulting.

The company I run, Velvet Creative Alliance, has swum upstream from day one. Our business goal is not purely the income or the portfolio, but making the work, and the people we work with, enjoyable. Design studios are still an unknown category in Estonia, where graphic design is seen as a part of the advertising industry. Our company has grown into a full-service photo studio and 340 square meter design studio, employing 25 people and making us the biggest design studio and a Top-20 company, compared to advertising agencies. Most of our clients see us as strategic partners, rather than just decorators. And given all of this, we enjoy most of the work we do."

Issues in the design sectory in my country
"1.4 million people live in Estonia, which make the size of our market one of the major issues in the design industry. Small quantities, one-off projects and handwork are keywords when it comes to Estonian design. On the other hand, companies that do export their products tend to hire experts from western countries, as local companies lack the experience. Being a designer in a non-existing market is like training for the perfect wave in a desert.

Another problem we are facing is the lack of properly educated designers or design managers. Students are given the ability to use tools, but not the thinking that turns an artist into a designer. We help as much as we can - me and one of my colleagues lecture at the Estonian Art Academy - but we have found that the best way is to grow our staff by ourselves. We have hired up to three people without previous work experience or education in design every year, and educated them into professionals. It takes a lot of effort, but there is no other way of doing it."

Innovative design trends from Estonia
"What is notable is the second coming of typography from the time of the National Revival, about 1890, when woodcut lettering flourished. Another thing common for Estonia is the extensive use of simple vector graphics and texts as key design elements. So I guess simple and witty are the most notable qualities about Estonian design. Just like Skype, which was started here"

The information above is taken from the application form completed by the finalist in early 2007. Things may have changed since this information was provided and we recommend that you should not rely upon this information as a definitive statement of current fact. Click here to contact the finalist.