Profile
Strategic Director & Futures Specialist, Co-Founder of Wevolve
Think Tanks | Greater New York City Area, US
Summary
Ville Tikka (b. 1977) is futures specialist and strategic designer focused on exploring new cultural ideas and mapping the frontier of digital revolution – to instigate systemic change and imagine advanced futures.
Ville has co-founded Wevolve, a change agency that specializes in identifying new opportunities through creative research and creating bold visions, strong strategies and brave solutions through strategic design.
Previously he has worked at Nokia as Senior Futures Specialist – three years in New York and three in Helsinki – exploring trends and innovation opportunities in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and Latin America with ethnographic and co-creative design methods, and translating these into action with Nokia's global design, brand and business teams.
In addition, Ville has done versatile research in academia in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki University of Technology, and University of Turku; held a dope marketing job at Vice Magazine where he brought the youth media conglomerate to Finland; done conceptual design projects; participated in design exhibitions in the US, Europe and Asia; and received a top nomination for INDEX: Award 2007, the largest design award in the world.
Ville holds an MA in Psychology and Media Studies from University of Turku, has started a PhD in design research at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and has been regularly speaking at global and local conferences about transformative innovation and emerging trends.
Ville has co-founded Wevolve, a change agency that specializes in identifying new opportunities through creative research and creating bold visions, strong strategies and brave solutions through strategic design.
Previously he has worked at Nokia as Senior Futures Specialist – three years in New York and three in Helsinki – exploring trends and innovation opportunities in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and Latin America with ethnographic and co-creative design methods, and translating these into action with Nokia's global design, brand and business teams.
In addition, Ville has done versatile research in academia in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki University of Technology, and University of Turku; held a dope marketing job at Vice Magazine where he brought the youth media conglomerate to Finland; done conceptual design projects; participated in design exhibitions in the US, Europe and Asia; and received a top nomination for INDEX: Award 2007, the largest design award in the world.
Ville holds an MA in Psychology and Media Studies from University of Turku, has started a PhD in design research at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and has been regularly speaking at global and local conferences about transformative innovation and emerging trends.
Specialties: Taking it to the next level.
Experience
- Jan 2011 - PresentStrategic Director & Futures Specialist, Co-Founder / WevolveVille works as Strategic Director & Futures Specialist at Wevolve, a change agency he has co-founded.
Wevolve identifies new opportunities for change and drives transformation by creating bolder visions, stronger strategies and braver solutions. Wevolve specializes in both creative research and strategic design to instigate systemic change and imagine advanced futures. The company was founded in New York in early 2011 and currently operates from Helsinki, Finland. - Jul 2006 - Feb 2011Senior Futures Specialist / NokiaSenior Futures Specialist in Opportunity Identification, Insights Creation, Consumer Analytics and Insights, Nokia USA.
▶Based in New York, working as a change agent and thought leader in the company driving new opportunity identification to support product and service design, innovation, brand change, and business decision making, with the aim to bring new value for business, people and the planet.
▶ Having managed Nokia's global consumer trend research, covering six continents and 23 countries with a budget of over $1M, leading a global team of trends researchers and simultaneously managed several global trend research agencies. Being responsible for producing and publishing one of the key insights sources in Nokia, the Global Annual Consumer Trends, among other creative insights deliverables.
▶ Exploring the vanguard of change, covering everything from emerging online user behaviors and consumer trends to broader societal transformations with a variety of methods including ethnography, expert interviews and online methods.
▶ Translating the insights and foresight into concrete strategies and actions by consulting and facilitating innovation workshops with various internal stakeholders including Corporate Strategy, Design Strategy, Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy, and Device and Service Business Groups. - Sept 2005 - 2010Doctoral Student / Media Lab at University of Art and Design Helsinki
- Jul 2006 - Dec 2007Futures Specialist / Nokia DesignFutures Specialist in Consumer Trends & Experiences team in Nokia Design. I worked between design studios in Helsinki and London and was focused on:
▶ Exploring the forefront of global societal transformations and the landscape of consumer and online trends, especially focusing on technology and services usage, cutting edge lifestyles and youth trends.
▶ Facilitating new innovation and supporting design work with trend insight, especially working with style oriented Live category design as well as supporting Live category strategy, brand and marketing.
▶ Managing global trend research projects and trend research agencies in the US, Europe, China and India and conducting ethnographic trend research all over the globe. - 2005 - 2006Interaction Designer / Researcher / Nokia Research CenterInteraction Designer / Researcher, Mechanical User Experience team, Multimedia Laboratory, Nokia Research Center.
▶ Studying novel interaction methods and developing new concepts for tangible user interfaces. Focusing on researching and designing haptic feedback for touch displays.
▶ Managing research projects and university collaborations. - Aug 2004 - Dec 2006Marketing Manager, Sales & Distribution Representative / Vice Magazine▶ Bringing the cutting edge youth media brand, the Vice Magazine, to Helsinki, Finland.
▶ Responsible for local sales, distribution network (the hippest shops, clubs and bars), events, exhibitions and collaborations taking place in Finland.
▶ Collaborating with the Scandinavia affiliates in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
http://www.viceland.se - Jun 2005 - Sept 2005Market researcher / A World Beyond - AWB▶ Facilitating focus groups and conducting consumer research to support the launch and localization of the Music Television Finland.
▶ Offering strategic consulting for MTV Finland to align the content and program schedule according the local preference.
http://www.awb.se/
http://www.musictelevision.fi/ - May 2005 - Sept 2005Researher / Interaction Designer / Helsinki University of TechnologyResearcher / Designer, Helsinki University of Technology, m-Loma project.
▶ Studying the cognitive challenges in constructing mental representations between locations in the digital and physical spaces.
▶ Designing the user interface for 3D mobile guidance and messaging application. - 2004 - 2005Interaction Designer / University of Art and Design HelsinkiDesigner / Researcher, MUKANA.
▶ Designing MUKANA smart clothing for visually impaired that provides a wearable interface for the guide system, incorporating a neoprene sash, a cell phone, a wireless headset, a GPS module and voice-recognition software. MUKANA helps visually impaired to identify their location and use the phone with Braille number pad as well as provides information about routes or public transportation timetables.
▶ MUKANA has appeared in the blogosphere in over 100 blogs including Engadget and we-make-money-not-art, as well as in Business Week.
▶ It has also been exhibited globally in the following exhibitions:
–SAUMA, Design as cultural interface, Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland, 2008
–INDEX: AWARD EXHIBITION, Gwangju Design Biennale, Korea, 2007
–INDEX: AWARD 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007
–SAUMA, A+D Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles, U.S., 2007
–SAUMA, World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery, New York, U.S., 2006
–SAUMA, Embassy of Finland, Washington, DC, U.S., 2005 - 2004 - 2004Researcher / Nokia Research CenterResearcher, Visual Ergonomics team, Multimedia Laboratory, Nokia Research Center.
▶ Researching multimodal interfaces and video in mobile context.
▶ Studying multisensory integration of perception – how visual, aural and tactile perceptions affect each other and publishing an internal paper on the topic. - Sept 2002 - Sept 2003Research Assistant / Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in University of Turku▶ Planning and accomplishing fMRI brain studies and designing research instruments.
▶ Studying brain mechanisms of tactile working memory.
Education
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2005 - 2012University of Art and Design HelsinkiDoctor of Arts in Emotional Interaction
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1998 - 2005University of TurkuMA (with Great Honors) in Psychology, Media Studies
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2003 - 2004Universitat Pompeu Fabra BarcelonaErasmus international exchange student
Additional Information
Websites:
Honors:
▶ NOMINATIONS
Top Nominee in INDEX: AWARD 2007 - DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE, The largest design award in the world.
http://www.indexaward.dk/
▶ EXHIBITIONS
SAUMA, Design as cultural interface, Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland, 2008
INDEX: AWARD EXHIBITION, Gwangju Design Biennale, Korea, 2007
INDEX: AWARD 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007
SAUMA, Design as cultural interface, A+D Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles, U.S., 2007
SAUMA, Design as cultural interface, World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery, New York, U.S., 2006
SAUMA, Design as cultural interface, Embassy of Finland, Washington, DC, U.S., 2005
http://www.indexaward.dk/
http://www.saumadesign.net/
▶ PUBLICATIONS
Olimme kuluttajia - Neljä tarinaa vuodesta 2023 (We were consumers - Four stories from the year 2023)
http://bit.ly/2AnZKb
Designing Haptic Feedback for Touch Display
http://bit.ly/cyE7
Understanding users’ strategies with mobile maps
http://bit.ly/SsU0G
