Eric Karjaluoto

Current

• Founder at MakeFive
• Creative Director & Principal at smashLAB

Past

• Sessional Instructor at Vancouver Film School
• Designer/Prepress at The Prince George Citizen
• Visual Artist (Self-employed)

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Education

• Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design

Recommended

16 people have recommended Eric

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Design

Websites

• smashLAB
• ideasonideas
• Design Can Change

Eric Karjaluoto’s Summary

Eric Karjaluoto is a founding partner of the digital agency smashLAB. He has directed projects for groups including CN, Tourism Vancouver, and Canadian Heritage. He is a strong advocate of strategy and pragmatism in design.

In 2007 he spearheaded Design Can Change, an effort to unite designers and address climate change. The team at smashLAB has also launched the online community MakeFive and a crowdsourced design and marketing site called undrln. TIME, the Lotus Awards, and ICOGRADA have recognized his work; meanwhile, the agency has been featured in The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, and Studio 4.

Eric writes about design, brands, and experience at ideasonideas.com and has spoken at events for the AIGA, SEGD, and GDC. Eric studied at the Emily Carr Institute and lives in Vancouver with his lovely wife and two delightful little boys. (He still talks to his mom and dad almost every day.)

He'll recently released his first book, Speak Human: Outmarket the Big Guys by Getting Personal.

Eric Karjaluoto’s Specialties:

Interactive Strategy, Brand Strategy, Creative Direction, Interaction Design,

Eric Karjaluoto’s Experience

• Founder

  MakeFive

  (Internet industry)

  May 2007 — Present (2 years 8 months)

  MakeFive is a website that allows people to connect through top-five lists. In it users can start topics of any nature and then share their opinions. This can be useful for finding new restaurants, noting favorite movies, debating topical issues, and a raft of other possibilities. Active members earn points for their activity, which increases their authority in the community.

• Creative Director & Principal

  smashLAB

  (Partnership; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

  May 2000 — Present (9 years 8 months)

  Creative direction and account management on interactive design and web development properties, as well as overseeing general operations and planning.

• Sessional Instructor

  Vancouver Film School

  (Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Higher Education industry)

  March 2008 — August 2008 (6 months)

  Designed course materials and delivered instruction for Branding classes in the Digital Design Program.

• Designer/Prepress

  The Prince George Citizen

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Newspapers industry)

  October 1996 — February 2001 (4 years 5 months)

  Design of advertisements as well as prepress coordination and creation of special publications.

• Visual Artist

  Self-employed

  (Self-Employed; Fine Art industry)

  May 1995 — June 2000 (5 years 2 months)

  Exhibited painter with showings in public, private and independent venues in cities including Seattle, Vancouver and Prince George. Additional information and work viewable at: www.karjaluoto.com

Eric Karjaluoto’s Education

• Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design

  Diploma , Fine Arts - Studio , 1991 — 1995

Additional Information

Eric Karjaluoto’s Websites:

• smashLAB
• ideasonideas
• Design Can Change

Eric Karjaluoto’s Interests:

My wife and son, reading, running, film

Eric Karjaluoto’s Groups:

GDC, AIGA, New Media BC

•    Sustainable Consumer Packaged Goods
•    Society of Graphic Designers of Canada
•    Emily Carr University of Art + Design Alumni
•    Renourish Green Graphic Design Collaborative
•    The Canada Mar-Comm Collective
•    Tazzu ® Business & Technology Community

Eric Karjaluoto’s Honors:

Awards
• Advertising & Design Club of Canada
• Applied Arts Interactive Awards
• Graphex 2008
• Graphis Interactive Design 3
• Icograda +DESIGN
• Lotus Awards
• STEP Inside Design Best of Web
• Summit Creative Awards
• TIME Magazine Design 100
• Web Marketing Association

Books
• 1,000 Bags, Tags, & Labels
• Almanac of Asia-Pacific Design
• North and South America's Logos
• Sex in Design
• Sustainability in Construction
• Graphic Designer's Guide to Better Business Writing
• Web Design Index

Presentations
• HOW Design Conference 2008
• AIGA Y13: Seeds of Change
• AIGA Seattle/School of Visual Concepts
• New Media BC
• SFU - Future of Publishing
• VIDfest 2006

Articles, Features, and Mentions
• Adobe Insider
• Applied Arts
• Behance
• Creative Latitude
• Desktop Magazine
• Design Edge
• DesignSessions
• DigitalArts Magazine
• Graphic Define
• HOW Magazine
• Icograda
• Metropolis
• PingMag
• Shared Vision
• TAXI Design Network
• Treehugger

Eric Karjaluoto’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch