Playing with Design
Dutch Graphic Designer Maaike Beenen-Miinalainen aims to have a professional attitude when working with clients without forgetting the fun.
The logo for Maaike Beenen-Miinalainen’s Pink Moose Designs seems to say a lot about her philosophy. He’s a moose, he’s bright pink, he’s drawn in a cartoon-like, bubbly way and he even looks a bit nervous.
‘Maybe he is!’ laughs Maaike, 32, who has been in Finland since 2001. ‘With that logo I guess I want to tell people that . . . I am at work; it is my daily bread. But you can work and enjoy it. There can be a relaxed atmosphere. Not just stress, stress, stress and work, work, work. I want to make people smile.’
Maaike’s website includes her ‘work philosophy’: a quote from the novelist Mark Twain which begins: ‘What work I have done, I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn’t have done it.’ ‘And I completely agree,’ adds Maaike. ‘The enjoyment I get from my work and the fact that I will go the extra mile for my customers, shows in the results.’
Aquajogging and Herrings
Like many expats in northern Finland who have come here as the spouses of Finns, Maaike has set up her own company. In her case, she offers freelance graphic design.
Maaike Beenen-Miinalainen
‘I came up with the logo after a visit to Lapland. A moose is a very typical animal here in northern Finland so when people see a moose, it is easy to recognize that it is probably not situated in the Netherlands but rather up north. And ‘Pink’? Well, I thought my moose would look great in pink, it would make people smile, so that was it: Pink Moose design!’
‘I’ve done work with an advertising agency in Ylivieska,’ she explains, having lived in the village on the outskirts of Oulu for many years. ‘Though I’ve now moved to Kajaani because my husband had a work opportunity there. The great thing about being a freelance graphic designer is you can kind of live anywhere and take your business with you.’
Maaike has also done cooperation with an agency based in Lapland, provided designs for the Aquajogging World Championships and is now doing work for an independent production company called ‘White Herring.’ She has recently designed their logo and website. Her other designs include the logo for ‘Willow Bridge’ – a charity which was going to offer safe houses to children – and an Olympic conference for Junior Chamber International.
Arriving Without a Hat
It was December 2001 when Maaike, who had been studying Communication and Graphic Design at in Leeuwarden (in the north of the Netherlands), came to Finland.
‘I remember it was minus 25 in Jyväskylä and I came without a hat so that’s pretty cold!’ she laughs. Maaike had met ‘a Finnish guy’ when she was in Hungary as an Erasmus student. ‘He still had to finish his studies and I still had to do a work placement,’ she explained. It therefore made sense that she would do her work placement with Jyväskylä Polytechnic. ‘We discussed it,’ she recalls, ‘and I like travelling so I thought it would be a nice thing to come to Finland.’
Maaike ended-up staying in Finland. She married, did various jobs, worked as freelancer on the side since 2003 and then, ‘I finally got Pink Moose going in 2005.’ Since then she has had two children – a boy of five and a girl of two. They speak Finnish but the youngest is currently speaking better Dutch than Finnish because she’s been at home with Maaike. And Maaike is now returning to dedicating herself to her company full time.
She stresses that communication plays a key role in the success of a design. ‘I always have an extensive briefing with the client to find out what they want,’ she explains. ‘It’s very important if you want to design something. You have to agree on the idea before you start with designing. I’ve had a few clients who said, “Look, I want it like this.” And if you don’t think that works then you need to discuss the issues with the client but, ultimately, it’s the client that has to decide. I work with that principle and use my skills and creativity to translate the idea from thought to visual design.’
‘Don’t Give up!’
Like many foreigners here, Maaike began with what she calls a ‘honeymoon phase’ in which ‘everything was nice. But after a while I realised that I didn’t speak the language, that the Finnish system of doing things was different and . . . well . . . the people didn’t open up as easily as people in the Netherlands. But eventually, I learnt the language and with that, understood more about the culture and the people and then I understood the jokes. Some of them are very dry!’
Maaike maintains business contacts in Oulu and was promoting her business at last week’s Oulu International Business Forum seminar. ‘My advice to any expats trying to set up a business is “Don’t give up”,’ she says. ‘Continue. If you really have a good idea . . . And, of course, I found a major benefit from learning Finnish.’
She finds it very funny that many Finns wonder why she has learned Finnish or is in Finland at all. ‘Where-ever I’ve lived in Finland, people have asked me, amazed, “Why did you move here?” I think Finns wonder why a foreigner would want to move so up north. But I love it up here.’
