Entrepreneur, CEO  Eerika Savolainen

“I want to see what is possible”

I am really curious and I want to know what the world would look like if things were done in a different way. What happens when you have the courage to make bold choices and take a few risks, too. The biggest reason for thinking like this now, is my work at the start-up and tech event Slush. I ended up there at the final stage of my studies.

What’s magical about Slush is that they have faith in a young person and their abilities more than the person themselves might do. You can take on endless amounts of responsibilities, and, for me, that was an amazing experience. It changed my way of thinking of what I am capable of doing, the challenges I want and am willing to take on in my career. Now I am working on solving one of the biggest problems in the fashion industry, overproduction. I am one of the co-founders of Clair, a start-up that forecasts demand for products.

I have a love-hate relationship with fashion. Clothes offer an amazing way to expressing oneself and elevate the everyday life. I love playing with style, but at the same time I’m frustrated with the volume with which the fashion industry fuels people’s impulse for new things. I bought all my clothes second hand for four years. Now I’m somewhere in the middle. I think that there is a place for items that are well-made and lasting. The main thing is that they are produced and purchased for necessity.

My starting point was to understand the challenges fashion brands and resellers are facing, and how technology might be able to help. This was the beginning of the AI-based Clair, which helps forecast the demand for products before the manufacture begins. Our mission is that every item that is made would find a loving home.

Our AI model utilises image and text-based data both from the client’s own history (such as demand and customers) as well as external sources. It learns to identify which products are likely to sell well and which won’t. It helps our clients avoid over-investing and helps increase their margin. We completed our first pilot projects and achieved remarkable results. We managed to reach a significantly higher accuracy than what a human analyst would be able to with Excel. One of our pilot clients was able to increase their gross margin by 22 per cent.

I don’t think of human beings and artificial intelligence being in competition with one another. AI can process massive amounts of data and find nuances that go unnoticed by a human.

Nevertheless, the taste, creativity and intuition of a human being are indispensable.

Clair has been received well and it’s been a pleasure to see that a traditional industry is curious and willing to see the possibilities new technologies have to offer. The journey has only just begun. This summer we will be launching Clair for a wider use. My dream is that Clair would become a successful company that helps solve the problem that exists on a global level. And that it would be a company that would also help Finnish fashion and design flourish.

Eerika Savolainen is the CEO and one of the founders of the start-up company Clair. She acted as the CEO of the start-up and tech event Slush from 2022 to 2024.

Eerika Savolainen, Entrepreneur & CEO, Clair

Designer, AD Rikhard Hormia

“Brands could do so much more if they had the courage”

I want to design a world where meaning and personality are not something superficial, but rather a foundation for everything. I want to see what happens when a brand has the courage to take a stand and be vocal about it. Style is never unintentional, it’s an instrument you can use to make a point.

People are what motivate me in my work. I want to understand what lies behind different perspectives. What sparks enthusiasm in me, is people and brands that dare to call into question old conventions. I think critically, I ask also the hard questions and challenge issues, yet I know how to pick my battles.

I bring my clients my view on how things feel and how they appear. I turn something complex into something simple, and encourage people to stand out. My working method is very iterative. I have learned to have the courage to show the client things and ideas that are incomplete. It requires being open and vulnerable.

This work sometimes takes me to unexpected places, which caters to my learning process. I have worked on a mobile game with two guys in a basement in the Meilahti neighbourhood of Helsinki. I have worked in a big Danish brand agency with an international bank as a client. I have designed packaging for a small company taking on the chewing gum industry. I have found myself directing a fashion shoot for an ad campaign in Hong Kong and New York.

I work with a lot different brands and I have great interest in following fashion. It’s a mirror that reflects the culture and the societal changes taking place at that time. What I find most interesting is stories and meanings behind everything – why does something look the way it does. The direction we are headed in fashion creates ripples affecting other industries, too. Fashion is designing and giving form to dreams and ideals.

I like being involved in a project from early on as part of the client’s team because I feel I can contribute to strategic decisions and the development of the brand. The conversations nourish my creative process – there are things that trickle between the lines. This is when I can get a good grasp on what the actual needs and challenges are. I am in the business of providing a service. It requires interaction and building trust.

I give my clients tools that help brands have the courage to be meaningful and have a character. I want my work and brands to evoke feelings and inspire. I feel we in Finland should boost our brand understanding. We have strong, iconic traditions in crafts and design, and in the recent years our work in fashion has reached a whole new level. The problem is that we don’t always know how to harness all that and use it for commercial success. My solution for this is using storytelling, aesthetics and experience to create brands that are relevant and culturally resonant.

My work is my passion, but I’ve also had to figure out how I want to work. A couple of years ago I had a burnout, and it turned things upside down. Now I think there is no need to go at full speed all the time. Creative work requires also room to breathe otherwise I cannot create anything new.

Designer, AD Rikhard Hormia has, among other, worked as Lead Designer at Marimekko and, as AD, taken part in the brand renewals of Halti and Mifuko.

Print Designer, Graphic Designer Oona Mäkelä

“This is not a job, it’s a way of existing”

You could say that creative work is part of my personality. I’ve worked and been creative with my hands ever since I was little. It’s a fire that’s in me. I don’t always need an inspiration or an assignment from a client – I just get the urge to express myself.

I do all my work by hand first. I don’t want it to exist only on a screen – it just doesn’t feel right. I want to feel the material and I use a lot of black ink. I pay attention to different smells things have, and I love the characteristic smell ink has. Working with my hands feels calming.

I’m interested in so many things. Lately I’ve been especially fascinated with three–dimensional design. For the longest time I worked only with paper, but now I need something tangible, something to build – it inspires me. I am also working on my first comic and I’ve gone towards liberal arts for the first time in a long time. I don’t want to be stuck with one form or method. Painting can lead to an idea for laser cutting, which then can inspire print design. It’s the best when one idea leads to another.

I studied graphic art in Belgium, but it didn’t feel like my thing. I switched to graphic design and made my first print design for my Master’s thesis project. Print design differs from other graphic work or illustration in that you need to think about repetition and rhythm. I design the prints by hand first because I want them to have my signature touch. What many of my prints have in common is the brush stroke that is emblematic to my style. When I scan the prints, I add the colours digitally.

I get very excited about colours and I enjoy watching colours. Colours and their combinations elicit powerful feelings in me. I feel there are endless variations of muted colours since the world around us is filled mostly with muted colours. To me, colours are a way of conveying different moods.

My relationship with fashion is contradictory. I like clothes, the visual side, and the fact that the way I dress is part of my identity. Clothing is in its own way part of enjoying life. At the same time, I’m critical about consuming and the fast fashion cycles. I don’t buy fast fashion. I want to design something that is lasting, and prints that bring people joy for a long time. Something elegant with perhaps a distinct twist.

I hope people would appreciate illustrations more, and would utilise them more. A well-designed illustration is eye-catching, and it’s often difficult to draw a line between art and illustration. I hope I get a chance to work more on an international level. I have great passion and zest for this work.

Oona Mäkelä is an Illustrator and Print Designer, who has worked with Nanso, Makia, Samuji and the city of Helsinki.