Two-time Olympic bronze medalist Michelle Karvinen designed the 2019 Women's Worlds logo and hopes to make the final on home ice in Espoo.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
Coming off her second Olympic bronze medal last year in Korea, Michelle Karvinen hasn’t slowed down. In fact, the star Finnish winger recently expanded her portfolio by designing the official 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship logo.
It’s a stylized tribute to Karvinen’s veteran teammate Riikka Sallinen (born Nieminen, previously Valila), who at age 45 is women’s hockey’s answer to Jaromir Jagr.
Needless to say, it’s rare for a player to design a logo for a tournament she’s playing in. There’s no limit to Karvinen’s creativity and productivity. She achieved her bachelor’s degree in graphic design and communications at the University of North Dakota in 2014 while captaining the hockey team, and she’s worked as a graphic designer while playing in Sweden since 2015.
The explosive 29-year-old, who also owns four Women’s Worlds bronze medals, didn’t win her third Swedish scoring crown with Lulea HF. Yet with 25 goals and 31 assists in just 26 games, Karvinen came fourth in SDHL scoring, and her points-per-game average of 2.15 was tops in the league.
Come playoff time, she enabled Lulea to defeat Linkoping in the final, as her team roared back from a 2-0 series deficit to win the best-of-five series. Stepping up along with Jenni Hiirikoski, who captains both Lulea and the Finnish Lionesses, this 166-cm, 69-kg dynamo scored the Game Four overtime winner, and finished with a playoff-leading 18 points.
Karvinen was also named the inaugural Champions Cup MVP when Lulea beat the NWHL’s Metropolitan Riveters 4-2 in New Jersey in October.
Now it’s time to focus on winning a medal on home ice in Espoo. However, our recent conversation with Karvinen naturally kicked off with the Women’s Worlds logo.
When the Finnish federation approached you about designing the logo, how did that go?
We started with a couple of ideas and tried to come up with different sketches for what direction we should take it. There was a lot of communication back and forth with the IIHF and also with the Finnish federation. In all, on and off, it took a couple of months. But obviously it didn’t take that long to do. It was just to get the whole story behind it. There was a lot of history. It wasn’t just some pattern. It was important for me that the logo was full of history and parts of Finland in some way.
What was your process?
I used Adobe Illustrator. I wanted it to be quite clean. I was just using two colours, the official colours of Finland. They’re the exact colours in the flag. I also wanted to create some dimension to the logo with the shadow in the back, giving it some depth. Then I wanted white space to keep it clean, with not too much texture in the player.
I also didn’t want to take focus away from the other elements, like the nature of Finland. The player skating out on the pond symbolizes how Finland is known as the Land of a Thousand Lakes. It’s also maybe where most people started their career, on some pond somewhere. I didn't, because I grew up in Denmark. But when we went to Finland with my family, every time we got to play outside, the ice was magical. I can imagine being able to grow up and do that always is something very special.
And so was your opportunity to put Riikka’s famous #13 on this logo. Do you think Riikka will keep on making hockey history after this tournament? Or will she retire?
I have no idea! I thought maybe after the Olympics she’d be done. She’s like that. From her being like, “Oh, I think this is it,” and then she came back anyway. Now it’s a home Worlds. I understand that she wanted to be a part of it. We’re lucky that she wants to continue. I can just imagine it being quite a puzzle for her with her kids and everything, to make it work. She’s a superwoman, I think, with everything she needs to do to make it work with her personal life. So we’ll see. I’m happy she gets the experience of a home Worlds at least if it is her last.
Finland has solidified its status as the world’s number three team behind the U.S. and Canada in recent years. What’s been the key?
I think it’s been a process. It hasn’t happened from one year to another. We’ve been very focused for the last five years. A lot of things have happened. We don’ have as many players as the U.S. and Canada, but we’re very focused on the group around the national team. We're getting way more help from both the federation and the Olympic committee. Now we have more people who don’t have to work, getting stipends from the Olympic committee. Things like that help a lot. It just makes everyone’s everyday life easier if you don’t have to work a full-time job and can put more time and effort into your hockey career. It's something that's been reflected in the way we've been doing the last few years.
But I also think just the way we’ve been working when we’ve been with the national team, we’re very particular with the way we play. Everybody knows how we play and what we should do and what Team Finland stands for. It’s a combination of a lot of different things, but also having the patience over the last five years to work on all those small details and become a better national team.
The state of professional women's hockey in North America is in flux right now. If one league emerges with all the best players, would you consider playing there?
No. I mean, I’ve been playing before overseas, and it’s obviously not impossible, but of course, we’re treated really, really well here in Sweden and in Lulea. If I should go there, it would have to be better than it is here. Right now, we're getting treated really well here with everything.
You never know. It would be fun if all the best players played in the same league. It would be a super-fun experience and great for women’s hockey, I think. But right now, the way Lulea has worked and created a good working and training environment for us and the way we're treated as athletes, I've never experienced anything like that. So it would take a lot for me to leave Lulea, for sure.
How did you feel when the University of North Dakota suddenly eliminated its women’s hockey program in 2017?
When I heard the news, I was really shocked and really sad. My next response was – we were at the Worlds when we got the news – thinking about the girls who were playing on the Finnish team. We had a couple of players who were still at UND. I tried to take care of them and support them, because obviously for them, their whole future was unclear from one day to another.
Being involved with getting the program back, we have had some communication between all the players to get things happening. For me, obviously, I’m so far away. I have tried to be as involved as I can. But more than anything, it’s so sad. Playing there, we by far had the best crowd there, an amazing building, and the community was so behind us. It just doesn't make sense that it got cut.
At UND, you played on a line with Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux. What was that like?
I understand why people don’t like playing against them, because they’re probably some of the most competitive people I have played with or against! They’re extremely hard-working players, very dedicated, and very inspiring to be around. They are great, great, great, great hockey players. They can win big games when they have their good days. I think they proved that more than anything when they took home the gold for the U.S. at the Olympics.
Let’s talk about some of your Lioness teammates. Petra Nieminen is just 19, but is getting ready to play her third Women’s Worlds after coming to PyeongChang last year. She also had 24 points in 34 games with Lulea as an SDHL rookie. What do you think of her?
She’s an awesome player. She has all the qualities to be a world-class player. I think it’s been really good for her to move to Lulea, try to live on her own, and play here. She’s getting a lot of good games and training with good players. I think it’s been huge for her development.
How about defender Nelli Laitinen? She’s making her Women’s Worlds debut at age 16. Could she someday fill the role that Jenni Hiirikoski plays with your national team?
Definitely. There’s a lot of potential, but obviously players like Jenni don’t grow on trees. I think potentially over years, of course, the chance is always there. But I haven’t played with or against a lot of people like Jenni, if anyone. She’s a very unique player. So it’s big shoes to fill, for sure, but the potential is there.
What was your reaction to the decision to extend coach Pasi Mustonen’s contract through 2022?
I think it was the right decision. Pasi has definitely been taking our team to the next level. He’s extremely dedicated and he’s doing a lot of good things, not just on the national team, but for women’s hockey in Finland in general. He’s treating us as athletes and he’s respecting us and pushing us. He’s definitely one of the best coaches I’ve ever had, if not the best. So I’m really happy that he’s staying.
It’s a stylized tribute to Karvinen’s veteran teammate Riikka Sallinen (born Nieminen, previously Valila), who at age 45 is women’s hockey’s answer to Jaromir Jagr.
Needless to say, it’s rare for a player to design a logo for a tournament she’s playing in. There’s no limit to Karvinen’s creativity and productivity. She achieved her bachelor’s degree in graphic design and communications at the University of North Dakota in 2014 while captaining the hockey team, and she’s worked as a graphic designer while playing in Sweden since 2015.
The explosive 29-year-old, who also owns four Women’s Worlds bronze medals, didn’t win her third Swedish scoring crown with Lulea HF. Yet with 25 goals and 31 assists in just 26 games, Karvinen came fourth in SDHL scoring, and her points-per-game average of 2.15 was tops in the league.
Come playoff time, she enabled Lulea to defeat Linkoping in the final, as her team roared back from a 2-0 series deficit to win the best-of-five series. Stepping up along with Jenni Hiirikoski, who captains both Lulea and the Finnish Lionesses, this 166-cm, 69-kg dynamo scored the Game Four overtime winner, and finished with a playoff-leading 18 points.
Karvinen was also named the inaugural Champions Cup MVP when Lulea beat the NWHL’s Metropolitan Riveters 4-2 in New Jersey in October.
Now it’s time to focus on winning a medal on home ice in Espoo. However, our recent conversation with Karvinen naturally kicked off with the Women’s Worlds logo.
When the Finnish federation approached you about designing the logo, how did that go?
We started with a couple of ideas and tried to come up with different sketches for what direction we should take it. There was a lot of communication back and forth with the IIHF and also with the Finnish federation. In all, on and off, it took a couple of months. But obviously it didn’t take that long to do. It was just to get the whole story behind it. There was a lot of history. It wasn’t just some pattern. It was important for me that the logo was full of history and parts of Finland in some way.
What was your process?
I used Adobe Illustrator. I wanted it to be quite clean. I was just using two colours, the official colours of Finland. They’re the exact colours in the flag. I also wanted to create some dimension to the logo with the shadow in the back, giving it some depth. Then I wanted white space to keep it clean, with not too much texture in the player.
I also didn’t want to take focus away from the other elements, like the nature of Finland. The player skating out on the pond symbolizes how Finland is known as the Land of a Thousand Lakes. It’s also maybe where most people started their career, on some pond somewhere. I didn't, because I grew up in Denmark. But when we went to Finland with my family, every time we got to play outside, the ice was magical. I can imagine being able to grow up and do that always is something very special.
And so was your opportunity to put Riikka’s famous #13 on this logo. Do you think Riikka will keep on making hockey history after this tournament? Or will she retire?
I have no idea! I thought maybe after the Olympics she’d be done. She’s like that. From her being like, “Oh, I think this is it,” and then she came back anyway. Now it’s a home Worlds. I understand that she wanted to be a part of it. We’re lucky that she wants to continue. I can just imagine it being quite a puzzle for her with her kids and everything, to make it work. She’s a superwoman, I think, with everything she needs to do to make it work with her personal life. So we’ll see. I’m happy she gets the experience of a home Worlds at least if it is her last.
Finland has solidified its status as the world’s number three team behind the U.S. and Canada in recent years. What’s been the key?
I think it’s been a process. It hasn’t happened from one year to another. We’ve been very focused for the last five years. A lot of things have happened. We don’ have as many players as the U.S. and Canada, but we’re very focused on the group around the national team. We're getting way more help from both the federation and the Olympic committee. Now we have more people who don’t have to work, getting stipends from the Olympic committee. Things like that help a lot. It just makes everyone’s everyday life easier if you don’t have to work a full-time job and can put more time and effort into your hockey career. It's something that's been reflected in the way we've been doing the last few years.
But I also think just the way we’ve been working when we’ve been with the national team, we’re very particular with the way we play. Everybody knows how we play and what we should do and what Team Finland stands for. It’s a combination of a lot of different things, but also having the patience over the last five years to work on all those small details and become a better national team.
The state of professional women's hockey in North America is in flux right now. If one league emerges with all the best players, would you consider playing there?
No. I mean, I’ve been playing before overseas, and it’s obviously not impossible, but of course, we’re treated really, really well here in Sweden and in Lulea. If I should go there, it would have to be better than it is here. Right now, we're getting treated really well here with everything.
You never know. It would be fun if all the best players played in the same league. It would be a super-fun experience and great for women’s hockey, I think. But right now, the way Lulea has worked and created a good working and training environment for us and the way we're treated as athletes, I've never experienced anything like that. So it would take a lot for me to leave Lulea, for sure.
How did you feel when the University of North Dakota suddenly eliminated its women’s hockey program in 2017?
When I heard the news, I was really shocked and really sad. My next response was – we were at the Worlds when we got the news – thinking about the girls who were playing on the Finnish team. We had a couple of players who were still at UND. I tried to take care of them and support them, because obviously for them, their whole future was unclear from one day to another.
Being involved with getting the program back, we have had some communication between all the players to get things happening. For me, obviously, I’m so far away. I have tried to be as involved as I can. But more than anything, it’s so sad. Playing there, we by far had the best crowd there, an amazing building, and the community was so behind us. It just doesn't make sense that it got cut.
At UND, you played on a line with Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux. What was that like?
I understand why people don’t like playing against them, because they’re probably some of the most competitive people I have played with or against! They’re extremely hard-working players, very dedicated, and very inspiring to be around. They are great, great, great, great hockey players. They can win big games when they have their good days. I think they proved that more than anything when they took home the gold for the U.S. at the Olympics.
Let’s talk about some of your Lioness teammates. Petra Nieminen is just 19, but is getting ready to play her third Women’s Worlds after coming to PyeongChang last year. She also had 24 points in 34 games with Lulea as an SDHL rookie. What do you think of her?
She’s an awesome player. She has all the qualities to be a world-class player. I think it’s been really good for her to move to Lulea, try to live on her own, and play here. She’s getting a lot of good games and training with good players. I think it’s been huge for her development.
How about defender Nelli Laitinen? She’s making her Women’s Worlds debut at age 16. Could she someday fill the role that Jenni Hiirikoski plays with your national team?
Definitely. There’s a lot of potential, but obviously players like Jenni don’t grow on trees. I think potentially over years, of course, the chance is always there. But I haven’t played with or against a lot of people like Jenni, if anyone. She’s a very unique player. So it’s big shoes to fill, for sure, but the potential is there.
What was your reaction to the decision to extend coach Pasi Mustonen’s contract through 2022?
I think it was the right decision. Pasi has definitely been taking our team to the next level. He’s extremely dedicated and he’s doing a lot of good things, not just on the national team, but for women’s hockey in Finland in general. He’s treating us as athletes and he’s respecting us and pushing us. He’s definitely one of the best coaches I’ve ever had, if not the best. So I’m really happy that he’s staying.