Lahti Instute of Design's Christmas Market's Visuals

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Lahti Institute of Design's

Christmas Market's visual design 2019

client work, 2019

I was selected to design the visuals for the Lahti Institute of Design's Christmas Market 2019. The Christmas market is one of the most important events for the Design Institute and every year one student gets to design its marketing materials. Design students can submit their ideas to the student organisation every autumn and they select the winner.

The design students from Lahti Institute of Design can sell their own handmade goods in the Christmas market. Popular products are calendars, cards, jewellery, soap bars, illustrations and knitted beanies, gloves, scarfs etc. The target audience are the residents of Lahti city who are interested in design and handmade goods. Many people come to look for unique Christmas presents from the market. This time the market was at the same time as Lahti City's Opening of the Christmas Season 2019, so the city centre was full of people shopping for presents and attending different events. The market was held in the TRIO shopping mall in downtown area.

Illustration Process

I decided to illustrate this poster with traditional techniques since I wanted to highlight that this was a handcraft Christmas market where design students sell their own handmade goods. First I sketched different Christmas-themed objects and then painted them with gouache. After that I scanned the work and started to work with the text. During the design process I was actively speaking and getting feedback from the client, MIO ry – Lahti Design Institute's student organisation. I changed some objects after feedback to give a better idea of what the students were selling at the market (for example Christmas cards, jewellery and safety reflectors). After the illustration was ready I edited it in Photoshop. I simplified some objects and tested different colour combinations. I decided to make the background colour lighter to make the poster more softer and brighter. With the typography I tested different typefaces and asked for some feedback from one of our graphic design teachers. I used the visuals from the main poster in other materials also.