Baltic Circle festival’s Artistic Director Hanna Parry has been awarded Client of the Year (Asiakashuippu) at the Vuoden Huiput 2020 creative design competition. The award is given annually to a person for commissioning good marketing and design.
According to Arja Karhumaa, chief judge of the competition,
“Parry is a pioneer with far-reaching confidence not only in designers but also in how form and design participate in the process and generate new knowledge. – – Under Parry’s direction, Baltic Circle festival shows way not only for the flows of graphic design but also for new – and needed – ways of working: it focuses on the meaningfulness and fairness of the work. Feedback is given and received, and sustainable ways of working are considered together. Social as well as ecological sustainability is emphasized in the festival’s strategy and working methods in a way that many companies and communities operating in other arenas could learn from.”
Baltic Circle has been awarded in the competition before. In 2015, the festival’s visual identity, designed by GRMMXI, received the Kultahuippu main award. In 2017, Baltic Circle’s festival catalogue by Nina Grönlund, Pauliina Nykänen and Kaarina Tammisto was shortlisted in the Young Creatives category. Since 2020, the festival’s visual identity has been designed by Katri Astala ja Pauliina Nykänen.
Organised since 1980 by Grafia − Association of Visual Communication Designers in Finland, Vuoden Huiput is Finland’s most significant creative design competition.