Emergent Living in practice
The projects below span city innovation, cultural institutions, and organisational design. My background across public and private sectors brings cross-sector perspective to institutional work and demonstrates how a consistent approach creates outcomes across very different contexts.
Strategic design across digital education initiatives.
Approach:
As Strategic Design Lead for UNICEF's Global Learning Innovation Hub, I integrate design methods across a portfolio of flagship digital education initiatives. This means shaping how programmes are framed, how they land with partners, and how country teams build local ownership of innovation in education. The work spans facilitation, visual strategy, and framework creation that connect complex ideas to actionable outcomes.
Outcome:
Country teams gain usable toolkits and design journeys that make learning innovation frameworks practical across diverse country contexts. The design work accelerates partner engagement and supports funding by making the Hub's initiatives clear, compelling, and grounded in human experience.
Building city innovation capacity across four continents.
Approach:
Across programmes spanning the Nordics, Middle East, Oceania, and North America, I work with city teams to build their internal capacity for innovation. The work ranges from intensive city coaching through to longer-term capacity integration, designing training programmes, supporting teams through implementation, and creating systems that sustain innovation.
Outcome: City teams develop the ability to apply innovation methods independently, ranging from diverse topics such as affordable housing, increasing employment, community engagement, and cross-sector collaboration. The work creates institutional capability that continues beyond the programme.
Innovation methods for employment services renewal.
Approach:
As a City Innovation Coach, I tailored guidance for Turku’s employment services reform team to form a citizen-centric view of their services. By introducing an innovation framework, the team was able to identify core challenges, gather insights, and develop a portfolio of future-focused initiatives.
Outcome:
The project resulted in a comprehensive knowledge base for enhancing employment services, actionable improvements for the customer experience, and scalable solutions to drive economic development and enable systemic change.
Read further about the process and story.
Design leadership for Scandinavian living.
Approach:
As Creative Director for Fiskars Scandinavian Living, I guided transformative processes that balanced heritage with future-forward thinking. Working with a multidisciplinary team, I embedded design into organizational culture while aligning product, retail, and marketing strategies. Our work drew inspiration from Scandinavian living as a holistic practice where objects and spaces create meaningful rituals and sustainable lifestyles.
Outcome: Key achievements include transforming strategic brands to be human-centric, building a sustainable design framework that preserved portfolio value, and establishing the Iittala & Arabia Design Centre. Technology explorations were initiated while ensuring the outcomes resonated across global markets. Strategic partnerships with Aalto University courses created educational initiatives that advanced design experimentation.
Learn more about design for Scandinavian Living.
Photo ©Iittala
City innovation coaching: designing for equity and collaboration.
Approach:
As part of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, I coached city teams to apply design-based innovation methods to address complex challenges. Central to this work were the principles of equity and inclusion, ensuring that solutions were citizen-focused and impactful.
Outcome:
I trained the city of Turku how to use innovation methods to become more customer-centric when engaging with companies. I also facilitated the Mayoral kickoff for the program in six cities across the US, Canada, and Europe, creating a strong foundation and clear focus for momentum.
Photo: Esko Keski-Oja
Marimekko: enhancing emotional quality of life.
Approach:
As Brand Development Manager, I worked to strengthen Marimekko’s global presence by enhancing emotional quality of life through design. This approach reflected a deep understanding of how design connects with people’s daily living environments and experiences.
Outcome:
Key achievements included managing international exhibitions that celebrated design’s impact on life, creating the Marimekko Spirit Book to communicate the company’s values, and launching the Marimekko Village initiative, which evolved into a customer loyalty program designed to deepen connections with people.
Take a closer look at emotional qualities of life.
Photo ©Marimekko
Building national collaboration through culture institutes.
Approach:
As a trustee, I provide strategic oversight and help guide the development of the Finnish Institute in the UK & Ireland, which promotes Finnish culture through the arts. This work uses culture as a bridge to create collaboration, build partnerships, and support sustainable development by connecting people and programs across borders.
Outcome:
Key contributions include shaping impactful cultural initiatives, strengthening governance and funding, mentoring program directors, and encouraging an environment of innovation and collaboration.
Learn more about designing and evolving cultural institutes.
Dayshift: reimagining remote work.
Approach:
Dayshift is a research study on the future of remote work. In collaboration with Michael Davis-Burchat, we worked with individuals, teams, and companies to prototype new forms of work and personal development, focusing on cultural formation and adaptability.
Outcome:
The study identified emergent signals in the remote work space and translated these into actionable prototypes for individuals and organisations. These prototypes provide practical tools to support cultural adaptability, balance productivity with well-being, and build momentum toward personal cultures of work.
Read further about the insights and application.
Photo: Giorgio Grani