Sami Niemelä

Current
  • Creative Director at Nordkapp Creative Oy
  • Partner at Hammerfest Holding Oy
  • Lecturer, Course Author at Helsinki School of Economics / ITP
Past
  • Designer, Owner at Neocite Communications
  • Senior Designer (contract) at Nokia Design
  • Designer at Nine Yards Design
  • Graphic Designer at Luxus Advertising
  • Webmaster / designer at Poko Rekords / EMI Finland
  • Graphic Designer at Alma Media Net Ventures
  • Web Designer at Tampere Automation Center / Tampere University of Technology
  • Web Design Intern at Tampere Automation Center / Tampere University of Technology
Education
  • Tampere School of Art & Media
  • The Institute of Marketing
Connections
350 connections
Industry
Design
Websites

Sami Niemelä’s Summary

I am a designer and user exprience consultant with a deep and throughout experience on visual communications and interaction design.

I have been involved within digital design for the last 10 years, mobile sphere since the first days of web/wap portals, lived to tell through the dotcom crash.

I believe an individual can and should change the world with his actions and I have a very strong will to also do so. We live in exciting times, and I am thrilled to be alive right here, right now.

Sami Niemelä’s Specialties:

Creative direction, visual communication design, interactive user experiences within physical and digital products, brands, services and spaces. Touch interaction and interface design.


Sami Niemelä’s Experience

  • Creative Director

    Nordkapp Creative Oy

    (Public Company; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

    August 2007Present (1 year)

    We are creative thinkers and problem solvers. We create and maintain brands, experiences, interfaces, spaces and general phenomenons. We aim to understand our clients' business and its goals, and set ours accordingly. We help to deliver solutions par excellence, worldwide.

    My task at Nordkapp is to be responsible for the level of the execution of creative solutions. It is a task I intend to do well.

  • Partner

    Hammerfest Holding Oy

    (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Executive Office industry)

    August 2007Present (1 year)

  • Lecturer, Course Author

    Helsinki School of Economics / ITP

    (Educational Institution; 501-1000 employees; Higher Education industry)

    May 2003Present (5 years 3 months)

    During the past five consecutive summers(2003, -04,-05 and -06) I have been involved in the ITP (Information Technology Program) summer course at Helsinki Business School HSE (formerly HKKK).

    My responsibilities have ranged from consulting the overall course structure to authoring and lecturing the tools, methods and theory on digital and graphic design.

    At best, my performance has been rated by the students as 4.43 out of 5. The lecturing continues this summer as well.

  • Designer, Owner

    Neocite Communications

    (Privately Held; Myself Only; Design industry)

    January 1999August 2007 (8 years 8 months)

    Designer / Art Director, first as a freelancer, then a sole trader since 2004, and and finally since 2006 as a owner of a limited company under the same moniker.

    Client cases include holistic branding and concepting projects, user experience, launch of an international youth entertainment product and a website, national travel promotions, event and campaign productions, advertising and digital media.

    In August 2007 Neocite Communications Oy and its creative partners joined forces and Nordkapp Creative was born.

  • Senior Designer (contract)

    Nokia Design

    (Public Company; 201-500 employees; Design industry)

    October 2005August 2007 (1 year 11 months)

    Contracted senior designer for Nokia Design's Insight & Innovation EMEA design studio in Helsinki.

    I worked as an integral part of the highly multidisciplinary and multinational team on high-level concepts, brand and product experiences from 2 to 5 years from present. I dealt with all aspects of the communication experience from concept to art direction/graphic design to digital and haptic interaction, and also handled subcontractors when necessary.

    I started 2005 as contracted consultant / visual designer for a year, and then worked as a senior designer for the rest of the time.

  • Designer

    Nine Yards Design

    (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

    March 2004April 2005 (1 year 2 months)

    Designer for web & smart device user interfaces , concepts and user scenarios for various clients in telecommunications, entertainment and design industries.

  • Graphic Designer

    Luxus Advertising

    (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

    December 2002January 2004 (1 year 2 months)

    Graphic design for both screen & print, including visual identities, websites, brochures and other graphic design for cosmetics, youth marketing, sports, travel and telecommunications industries.

  • Webmaster / designer

    Poko Rekords / EMI Finland

    (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Music industry)

    June 1999November 2002 (3 years 6 months)

    Designed, developed and updated a record label website from a scratch. Created & coordinated marketing websites to support various national top 3 releases.

  • Graphic Designer

    Alma Media Net Ventures

    (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Online Media industry)

    March 2000December 2001 (1 year 10 months)

    Graphic design and web design for various projects including various recognized national brands. Identities and websites portals, newspaper websitesplus various smaller projects. Full-time position from 5/00 to 8/00, freelance/part time for the rest.

  • Web Designer

    Tampere Automation Center / Tampere University of Technology

    (Educational Institution; 11-50 employees; Research industry)

    May 1998August 1998 (4 months)

    Fulltime Web Designer with occasional print tasks.

  • Web Design Intern

    Tampere Automation Center / Tampere University of Technology

    (Educational Institution; 11-50 employees; Research industry)

    May 1997August 1997 (4 months)

    basic web design tasks for internal purposes


Sami Niemelä’s Education

  • Tampere School of Art & Media

    BA, Interactive Media / Visual design, 19982002

    Activities and Societies:
    Saunaseura (founding member), TAMKO student union(member of the board), international tutor
  • The Institute of Marketing

    -, Basic Degree in Marketing and Advertising, 19971998

    The Institute of Marketing is an independent educational establishment providing vocational and continuing training for adults. I enrolled there to learn the basics of marketing communications and advertising. 85% done and will stay that way.


Additional Information

Sami Niemelä’s Websites:

Sami Niemelä’s Interests:

travel, anthropology and cultural sociology, design, music, drums and percussion, bicycles, longboard skateboards, good coffee.

Sami Niemelä’s Groups:

Active at various online communities since 1997

Grafia, Icograda, humhum

  •    Interaction Design Association member
  •    Brand 3.0 member
  •    User Experience member
  •    HH member
  •    Creative Mind Finland member

Sami Niemelä’s Honors:

- Shortlisted at Story-category in Flash Film Festival, New York 2002
- Shortlisted in RE: Big One 2002
- Exhibited at Seeme t-shirt exhibition, UIAH 2005
- Published at Pingstate - Art of Visual Community, Finland, 2007
- Received E-Emma award (Finnish Grammy) for the work done for IFPI Finland 2008
- Published in the Vuoden Huiput (best of year) 2008 -book.
- Shortlisted in RE: Grand One 2008.


Sami Niemelä’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

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

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