Vesa Lehtimäki Email & Phone Number

I've worked in the design industry since late 1980's, a period which has included a large variety of assignments from journalistic and commercial illustrations to designing and art directing magazines. Studies too (Master of Arts 1998, University of Industrial Design, or Aalto, as it is known today).I’m a freelancer by heart but there was a period of working as a 9 to 5 designer with top journalists (YLE, Suomen Kuvalehti 1992 to 2005), my school of journalism right there. And then some. From 2006 I have been mostly concentrating on working with illustrations. More specifically, I am inclined to drawing people, portraits and caricatures but also editorial and other commercial work. There was a time I worked with oils but it’s all digital and sometimes mixed these days.There is some graphic design in the mix too; I do book covers. An unexpected side project appeared in 2009 when I took on photographing toys. It is the geekiest thing ever, but tens of millions of hits to my Flickr photostream under the alias "Avanaut" was the result of catching a lightning in a bottle. Today, a portion of my income still is from toyphotography assignments. It's work but I find it impossible to think it as work, a small niche but it's great fun!This article on Animal Logic's technological achievements on The Lego Movie (2014) is interesting. My name comes up when discussing the look of the film. A quote from the article: In addition, Animal Logic took inspiration from Finnish photographer Vesa Lehtimäki (also known as Avanaut) who creates realistic scenes using LEGO, sometimes with ‘in-camera’ effects. “We actually talked to him,” recalls Freckelton, “and he described how Douglas Trumbull influenced his work by creating smoke tanks or much much smaller environments filled with much much more atmosphere than you would normally have. That was the same approach we took.”In 2017 I was nominated for a Hugo Award for my photography with Lego and scale models. Didn’t win but had the greatest time at WorldCon gala.

Listed skills include Illustration, Art Direction, Photography, Illustrator, and 8 others.

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  Taideteollinen Korkeakoulu - Konstindustriella HöGskolan

  Graphic Design