A very nice surprise was waiting for us when contacting the winning Creator of the Dinosauri Pitch. We were pleased to hear that there were actually two creative brains behind the winning Solution: Janne Salovaara (aka jannesalovaara) and Jarmo Ikonen (aka Idesign).

They are both coming from Finland and they are about to graduate from the same Design Institute - Janne (left side) and Jarmo (right side) have so much in common and yet, they are so different. What was the key to their successful collaboration?

Let’s find out more about them!

Please tell us a couple of words about yourselves.
Janne: I’m a 29 YO Finnish self-taught Art Director studying Industrial Design. I have 12 years of Ad agency experience and I’ve been studying at the Lahti Institute of Design for the last 4 years. I’ll be hopefully graduating in a couple of months now :)
Jarmo: I am a Finnish Industrial Design student as well – graduating from Lahti next month. Currently I am working on my graduation project so I’ve been under a lot of stress lately :)

How come you decided to study Industrial Design?
Janne: It felt like the natural next step after my long “visual” career in advertising. I wanted to go 3D as I had so much more to say compared to what the visual stuff allowed me to. Industrial Design offered me the wider expression possibilities I was looking for. I’ve always believed in user-orientated design so I wanted to study in order to improve my design capabilities.
Jarmo: I’ve always been a handy person - good at doing things with my hands like drawing or making airplane models. About five years ago everything seemed to be changing for me, both on a personal and professional level. I had a child and I was out of work – that determined me to change my lifestyle and think seriously about what to do next with my life. I felt like doing something really meaningful while pursuing one of my biggest dreams – to become a designer. I’ve always been interested in Industrial Design so basically the decision to enroll came on its own.

How would you describe your personal design concept?
Janne: Definitely user-oriented: the more it focuses on satisfying a need the better work will turn out to be. I cannot say I speak from experience, I don’t have such an extensive exposure yet but this is what will drive all my creations – a need rather than a desire.
Jarmo: I like doing things that are somehow new, meaningful and practical. I enjoy challenges and hard-won problem solving in which you really have to think and question the old ways of doing things. All that is reflected in my personal design style - for me is more about solving problems than making things look pretty. And I always try to design the most simple and minimalistic solutions for the most complicated problems.

Which are your favorite design areas?
Janne: I guess I have never developed a favorite area. I honestly like designing anything from ZUI to industrial machinery as long as I feel that my work matters and that I have the chance to make things better. Designing just for commercial purposes isn’t really my thing.
Jarmo: I am very interested in medical and wellness design.

How did you come across BootB and why did you decide to join us?
Janne: A friend of mine told me about you. I really like the idea of doing open pitches. I don’t necessarily believe in the classic agency model where the best idea is expected from a group of people, all under the same roof. Doing stuff on your own and leveraging the network looks like the best way to create. On the other hand, fishing in the same pond might lead to industry cannibalization. Sometimes, I am amazed by the math of some Pitches – starting with USD 1 500 the client gets to view a couple of hundreds of logos for example. That’s really getting a bang for your buck!
Jarmo: My dear colleague Janne Salovaara introduced me to BootB and I was very interested in the concept and attracted by the freedom this kind of service brings to both designers and corporations.

When deciding in which BootB Pitches to participate, which selection criteria do you have in mind?
Janne: The very first thing I am always asking myself is: can I come up with something really good? If I feel like I understand the Brief and get the gist of what the client is after I do a quick brainstorming. Should a great idea pop up I chase it and come up with a proposals, otherwise I am waiting for the next Pitch to come along.
Jarmo: I take into consideration the design area, the quality of the Brief and the reward. The Dinosauri Pitch was the one closest to industrial design at that time, it had an interesting brief and a nice reward as well.

Where did the inspiration come from when creating for the Dinosauri Pitch?
Janne & Jarmo: The project was just pure work. We really wanted the game to be an educational experience for the children. And that lead us to picking the right technology – one that allowed us to come up with a really innovative and naturally intuitive board game. Having Jarmo’s kid around, observing him playing, noticing what interests him and what catches his attention proved to be key for the project.

What advice would you give to the other Creators about making the most of BootB?
Janne: What I would advise the other Creators is not to “shoot out there hoping they will hit a mark” as that will only result in wasting their time and the client’s time. Do participate if they feel their contribution is meaningful. I find open design competitions as a great way to exercise, test and improve your design skills.
Jarmo: My advice for them is to pay close attention to the Brief, try to understand what does the company want and then, look for the most practical solutions for the given task.

In how many BootB Pitches did you participate till the date?
Janne: I’ve pitched about five to eight ideas. I’ve started with more than a dozen but then I decided not to participate if I didn’t feel confident about my contribution. For me this is not about being lazy but knowing yourself.
Jarmo: I’ve only participated to this Pitch as of now.

In between work and study, what do you do with your free time?
Janne: Free time is something I rarely have. I work from home and my studying is pretty independent as well so every day, morning to late at night, you can find me at my “corner office”. However, I like travelling a lot so twice a year I take long trips. As a break during the day I cook some nice food or go for a jog.
Jarmo: I spend most of my spare time with my family. I like reading, meditating, running and I always try to learn new things.

What’s up for you guys in the next couple of years?
Janne: I honestly don’t know yet. I might continue my studies here or go abroad. As I said before I didn’t really identify my design area so I intend to search for it for a while. That doesn’t bother me really, I am not in a hurry if I don’t know where I am heading. I strongly believe in designing with a moral purpose so I guess this is what I will do with my future.
Jarmo: Professionally speaking I hope I will be working on my own design projects. On a personal level, like all of us, I just want to have a happy life.

Do you plan to team up and participate to another Pitches or you will go separate ways from now on?
Janne: We will absolutely team up again! We’ve done it in the past for some school projects and it has proved to be a very productive and smooth collaboration. Even if different we always manage to respect each other’s point of view. Compromising is not a problem for any of us because experience has showed that it leads us unmistakably to the best solution possible.
Jarmo: I totally subscribe to that – I definitely want to collaborate with Janne again in the future. Despite leaving in different cities, we stay in touch via Skype and we often speak about working together. We not only seem to have great professional chemistry, I think we complete each other as colleagues and I must say working with Janne can be so much fun (sometimes :).

We are extremely happy to discover such a nice collaboration in such a competitive environment. This was our first double interview but we are looking forward to the next one!