Mikael Vesavuori

Essent

2015 — Business design, product design, website

Essent was an experimental brewery run by chef Oskar Bernhardsson. At Being, we helped form the business concept from the ground up using a strategic design perspective.

Our work with Bernhardsson was initiated with a serious stretch of market research and design analysis focusing on the national and international beer market, and its overlap with businesses involved in traditional craft and international gastronomy. The following co-design period led to the company conceptualized as Essent, a brewery making artisanal beers so intricate they can stand at the center of gastronomic experiences. Our work resulted in strategic reports, business naming, and three interlocking business concepts—the brewery being the first one.

Following our work with business design for Essent we helped develop the brand identity and packaging in line with the core concept of brewing artisanal beers as the center of gastronomic experiences.

We worked on a conceptual level on almost every aspect of the brand communication, including tone of voice in writing, product naming, imagery, brand identity, product sizing and appearance, etc. From there on we created assets for the brand identity, produced images for brand and product communication, designed and developed a website, designed packaging and on to marketing materials—everything conceptualized and created from the strategies developed early in our collaboration to assure sync between context, product and communication. At the core of the communication strategy is a combination of strict modernism with Scandinavian nature, as well as contemporary high-end cuisine combined with experimental craft beer.

Performing Resistance + Archive for Resistance Strategies

2015 — Book design, poster design, website

Performing Resistance is a research project by artist Annika Lundgren in the borderlands between political resistance, performance art and academic research based. The project is based on a series of seminars, artworks and the interwoven Archive for Resistance Strategies.

We worked in close collaboration with Lundgren to combine conceptual development and communication design, helping the project communicate more clearly and its events to be more productive. We worked with the development of a wide range of elements, from the thematic core of the project to public events and visual communication. Our work has resulted in a large quantity of public materials, including the project website, a yearbook, and event communication for several events.

Valand Academy: Strange Attractors

2017 — Book design, poster design

One of several design we did at Being for Valand Academy. I'm particularly fond of the 2017 material as we played with the posters for some very nice results and the books, which came in packs of 5 unique ones per set, had a highly textural sense to them.

Valand Academy: Totally Sick

2016 — Book design, poster design

Valand Academy asked us to conceptualize and design a publication to accompany and extend the MFA exhibition Totally Sick! at the Medical History Museum in Göteborg.

As the exhibition aims to explore subjects such as mental health, plastic surgery and quarantine we created a concept which would combine the clinical aspects of the pharmaceutical and medical industries with the fleshy grittiness of the faltering human body. The layout was created to blend clinical order with human error, and the typography takes inspiration from several familiar aesthetics related to medical care and institutional spaces.

The cover was created using a generative design with 300 unique covers from combinations of micro and macro views of the body, as well as graphics relating to medical care. The cover also featured a metallic sticker with information regarding the publication, including a 16-character unique ID number.

Valand Academy: 150 Years of Art Education in Gothenburg

2015 — Brochure design, poster design, signage and repurposed objects

Communicating 150 years of art education would demand a lot from any institution. We helped Valand Academy with their communication of the jubilee, starting with the creation of a symbol to unite the year-long celebration developed in a co-design process with stakeholders at Valand Academy.

With the goal of bringing the celebration of the academy into public life we created a bold, tactile and highly inviting communication system inspired by processes and aesthetics from historical and contemporary art. For the jubilee conference we created a cohesive design featuring traditional still life subjects as eye-catching sculptural signage pieces, and duotones of fluorescent green and charcoal blue. Our work also resulted in flags, send-outs, social media imagery, signage, web banners and advertisements in arts media.

Valand Academy: Bachelor Programme 2016