Aki Karkkainen

Current

• Web Developer & UI Designer at Qwentes Kantor S.A.

Past

• Web Integrator Consultant at Belgacom Skynet
• Web Designer/Developer at Kordell & Kordell
• Web Developer & Communications Officer at European Cockpit Association (Brussels, Belgium)

• Support Technician at TechTeam Europe (Brussels, Belgium)
• Web Developer (traineeship) at Ciel & Logis (Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France)
• Web Designer (University project) at Jyvaskyla Summer Jazz (Jyvaskyla, Finland)
• Project Worker (University project) at Arena Partners (Jyvaskyla, Finland)
• Freelance Musician/Music Teacher at various employers in Finland and Sweden

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Education

• Jyväskylän yliopisto
• Sibelius-Akatemia - Sibelius-Akademin

Recommended

6 people have recommended Aki

Connections

106 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• Twitter

Aki Karkkainen’s Summary

I am particularly interested in working for web agency, where I can apply my experience, skills and passion in building accessible and standards compliant websites, using a wide range of web technologies. Experienced in developing on various Open Source web frameworks.

Aki Karkkainen’s Specialties:

Standards compliant website development, (X)HTML, CSS, XML, SQL, unobtrusive JavaScript, various CMSs and publishing platforms (ExpressionEngine, WordPress, Joomla!, MODx, ShadoCMS etc.), ERD, Photoshop, usability, accessibility, typography.


Knowledge about relational database (MySQL) design & management, PHP, Microformats, Flash, Desktop publishing applications (InDesign, PageMaker, Scribus), Gentoo & Ubuntu Linux etc. - always eager to learn more, following RSS feeds regularly.

Aki Karkkainen’s Experience

• Web Developer & UI Designer

  Qwentes Kantor S.A.

  (Internet industry)

  October 2008 — Present (1 year 2 months)

  - Developing and integrating websites for numerous clients, using the ShadoCMS (multilingual application framework built in ColdFusion), as well as ExpressionEngine and MODx (PHP/MySQL).
  
  - Responsible mainly for frontend functionality while working with backend scripting too. Focused in building standards compliant, accessible and usable interfaces in semantic (X)HTML, CSS and raw JavaScript/jQuery framework.
  
  - Assisting in ColdFusion, Oracle and Flash development.

• Web Integrator Consultant

  Belgacom Skynet

  (Privately Held; Internet industry)

  April 2008 — September 2008 (6 months)

  - Developing and integrating web frontend components for one of the leading Belgian web portals using XHTML, CSS and JavaScript, following functional analysis and graphic designs.
  
  - Writing semantic markup, optimizing downloadable assets, and minimizing HTTP requests was also part of the process.
  
  - Working with usability experts and information architects to deliver a fully functional, optimized and accessible product that works in all major browsers (http://www.skynet.be/entertainment-fr).

• Web Designer/Developer

  Kordell & Kordell

  (Printing industry)

  January 2008 — April 2008 (4 months)

  - Designing, implementing and maintaining various corporate websites of the company (http://www.tictacphoto.com) and its business partners, and promoting the use of web standards.
  
  - Contributing to overall web communications strategy, including advising on the implementation of SEO best practices and performing quality control.

• Web Developer & Communications Officer

  European Cockpit Association (Brussels, Belgium)

  (Political Organization industry)

  May 2004 — December 2007 (3 years 8 months)

  - Responsible for all aspects of the development, interaction and maintenance of the website and subsites of the association (http://www.eurocockpit.be), including the Intranet for 38 000 members across Europe. Working as an in-house web designer/developer. (The site has however recently been redesigned by someone else.)
  
  - Developing and maintaining web applications on LINUX-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) platform. In addition to taking care of the daily CMS related tasks, the work included coding custom database applications (PHP/MySQL) with accessible, semantic and clean frontend interfaces. These were based on the functional analysis which I also performed.
  
  - Designing and creating monthly newsletters and publications in HTML and PDF formats, acting as a designer and layout editor (see http://www.eurocockpit.be/media/CockpitNewsDec06.pdf).
  
  - Responsible for all of the office's IT infrastructure, including hardware, software, licences and occasional Microsoft Exchange email server maintenance (liasing with a third-party company for any network related issues).

• Support Technician

  TechTeam Europe (Brussels, Belgium)

  (Information Technology and Services industry)

  March 2003 — April 2004 (1 year 2 months)

  - B2B technical support for United Parcel Service's (UPS, http://www.ups.com/) desktop and web applications in English, Swedish and Finnish.
  
  - Helping corporate customers across Europe with the installation, configuration and problem solving of the product, within the contractual Service Level Agreement.
  
  - Logging the incidents in the database.

• Web Developer (traineeship)

  Ciel & Logis (Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France)

  (Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

  June 2001 — August 2001 (3 months)

  - Creating and administrating an Access database
  - Entering business partner data into the database
  - Translating the website from French to Finnish
  - Web development using XHTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, Photoshop.

• Web Designer (University project)

  Jyvaskyla Summer Jazz (Jyvaskyla, Finland)

  (Music industry)

  January 2001 — May 2001 (5 months)

  - Interaction design
  - Definition and technical design
  - XML-database design and creation
  - Development using PHP, HTML, CSS, XML, Flash, Photoshop
  - Sound editing using SoundForge and Cool Edit Pro.

• Project Worker (University project)

  Arena Partners (Jyvaskyla, Finland)

  (Newspapers industry)

  November 2000 — March 2001 (5 months)

  - Development of an XML-based personalization plan as a recommendation for an online newspaper.

• Freelance Musician/Music Teacher

  various employers in Finland and Sweden

  (Music industry)

  January 1991 — August 1999 (8 years 8 months)

  Various music related activities, including playing gigs (freelance) and teaching.

Aki Karkkainen’s Education

• Jyväskylän yliopisto

  MSc (Econ.) , Information Systems Science (Economics and Business Administration), Multimedia and Web Design , 1999 — 2002

  The degree includes 5 months of Master’s studies at the Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle Paris III, Paris, France in Spring 2002.
  
  Master's thesis title: “Spatial sound in a user interface as a method to deliver hidden information and to relieve visual burden”.

• Sibelius-Akatemia - Sibelius-Akademin

  drums, piano, (jazz) harmony and composition 1993 — 1999

  This period includes one year music studies at the School of Music and Musicology, Gothenburg, Sweden in 1997-1998.

Additional Information

Aki Karkkainen’s Websites:

• Twitter

Aki Karkkainen’s Interests:

open source, web design/development, art, cinema, music, reading, skiing, travelling

Aki Karkkainen’s Honors:

Employee of the Month, 2003

Aki Karkkainen’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch