TOMI
CREATIVE

Name: Tomi Creative
Address: Helsinki, FI

DESIGN STUDIO+

DESIGN RESEARCH

HELSINKI,

FINLAND

TOMI CREATIVE IS A HELSINKI-BASED DESIGN STUDIO, FOUNDED BY TOMI RANTANEN

Tomi is a designer and design researcher, currently conducting practice-based, doctoral design research at the Department of Design in Aalto University, Finland.

His work draws from systemic design, transition design, participatory design, and feminist futures. Tomi is developing transition arenas from their governance and policy focus to cultural and community-led transformations.

The research context is the Finnish popular music sector, which he knows first-hand due to his 15-year-long career as a professional DJ and graphic designer in the field.

Tomi is a member of the NODUS Design Research Group and a board member at the Research Association Suoni.

Contact for guest lectures, workshops, keynotes, panel discussions, and articles.

SELECTED
WORK

The music industry has a problem. Gender inequalities are still prevalent, and women and gender minorities remain underrepresented. My doctoral research in the field of systemic design develops a participatory method, an equality transition arena, to address these systemic issues together wth the music industry stakeholders.

EQUAL FUTURES IN MUSIC

A 7-month project with a Zambian social enterprise, which aims to tackle many societal challenges – including malnutrional diets and deforestation. The project was built on design thinking and different design methods and prototyping tools.

AALTO GLOBAL IMPACT

In early 2020, I was founding a new media company, The Format. Our mission was to create a community that discusses social issues in music and celebrates black music. The Format published two video podcasts: the pioneering hip-hop radio show Kultabassokerho and a brand-new concept, The Sauce.

In under a year, we generated over 120k YouTube views and started meaningful discussions about racism and discrimination in music, which lead to concrete action on record labels.

THE FORMAT

Logo design for Mikael Gabriel's record label Tasoi Records. Home to artists such as PastoriPike, Kingfish, Boyat, Diison, Django and others.

TASOI RECORDS

I love music and have been deejaying in clubs all over Finland, but also in Namibia, South Africa, Spain and Estonia. Representing RANE in Nordic countries as their brand ambassador.

There's no DJ Misterhustla without social media. Very precise branding has lead to opening the stage for the likes of The Game, GZA, YG, Kid Ink, Tinashe, Gyptian, Yemi Alade and more. One of the most memorable moments was playing Virgil Abloh's launch party at Louis Vuitton Helsinki store.

DJ MISTERHUSTLA

Event marketing is in a key role in my graphic design portfolio. I've done visuals for a well over 100 events through the years – from club events to festivals.

POSTERS