Hi, I'm Eili-Kaija
– Pronounced like Hailey without the H + Kaya! ;)
I’m a Finnish illustrator and visual designer with a long-standing love affair with paint, colour and beautiful things made by hand.
For more than two decades, I’ve worked across illustration, design and visual storytelling — from books and editorial work to packaging, identities and international campaigns. My work has found its way onto all kinds of things, for all kinds of clients, in quite a few corners of the world.
And I’m still endlessly curious about what else an image can become.
For most of my career, painting and drawing have been the beginning of a longer journey. An original would be scanned, reproduced, printed, packaged, published or otherwise transformed into something else.
Lately, I’ve become fascinated by what happens when the painted surface itself becomes the final work.
No post-production. No need to reproduce it. Sometimes there is only the original — and I find that wonderfully exciting.
It doesn’t mean I’m leaving illustration or design behind. Quite the opposite. I’m curious about what happens when all those years of visual storytelling are allowed to move freely between paper, objects, materials and space.
Sometimes the result is illustration. Sometimes design. Sometimes something much closer to art.
I’m quite happy not having to draw a hard line between them.
I’m usually painting, drawing, designing, experimenting — or learning how to do something I don’t quite know how to do yet. Apparently, I’m always up to something good.
And when I’m not painting, designing or making music, you’ll probably find me buried somewhere in my garden. I’m fascinated by pretty much everything that grows, crawls, flies or blooms — but I have a particular weakness for flowers.
I grow them obsessively.
And then, of course, I paint them.
So have a look around. And if something here sparks an idea of your own, come and say hello.
The best projects often begin with a conversation.
"With humble gratitude for every project, I wish to make this world more vibrant, fun, meaningful, unique, and loving."
