Tuija Kuusela: GROW is like a lottery win!

Hejsan from Stockholm!

I'm Tuija Kuusela, book designer and GROW ambassador since the beginning of September. I flied here from Tammi Publishers (Helsinki, Finland) to Bonnierförlagen (Stockholm, Sweden). It was less than one hour's flight, so I knew that it wouldn't be a tremendous cultural chock. I've visited Stockholm several times, as nearly all Finns have. Usually, we make a one-day boat trip here to admire everything being so much more elegant, urban, abundant, designed, luxurious, trendy - and royal. Now I have a good chance to make research on that subject more thorougly.

I was so excited having been selected to Bonnier's non-fiction department, Bonnier Fakta. Professionally illustrated non-fiction books is my favorite area, and my passion is to bring them coherent identities. In addition to Bonnier Fakta, I'll work for Albert Bonniers Förlag, Bonnierförlagen's fiction literature department. Regarding cover design, it's fascinating to try to crystallize visual form for a fiction text.

I've worked in Tammi Publishers since 1997. These years have contained both cover design and layout in many kinds of areas besides non-fiction: novels, poems, childrens' and juvenile books, educational material and so on. At the moment, my situation is a bit contradictory: I was dismissed by my Finnish employer this summer. (The same fate affected 30 employees at Tammi Publishers.) Under these circumstances, the GROW position is nearly like a lottery win for me. To describe the situation, these three months will be like a swan song in my twelve-year-long Tammi/Bonnier career!