Career. Pentti Pilve (b. 1944) started his career as a copywriter in Tampere in 1962. He studied at Helsinki School of Economics and Institute of Marketing. After this, Pilve worked as a designer at marketing agency SEK in 1968 - 1972, when he established his own marketing agency, Creator Oy. Since 2002, he has had his own company specializing in brand management, Brandictor Oy.
Pilve has constructed brands during his career with over a hundred different companies and he was with creating global market leaders of several Finnish brands. Pilve has worked in international advertising communities as a jury member for various professional competitions, e.g. London International Advertising Awards, Cresta International Advertising Award Grand Jury and The Top of the Year competition as the Chief Judge. His posters can be found in many poster art museums around the world, and his works have been published in several yearbooks of the branch.
Awards and acknowledgements. Pilve is one of the most rewarded Finnish designers in the advertising world. He has won over a hundred significant prizes in advertising and graphic design. Pilve has won e.g. the following Finnish competitions: Kultajyvä, Vuoden Huiput Best Finnish Creative Design, Best Posters, Best Campaigns, The best export campaigns of the Year, The Best International Marketing, Klaffi and Kultasulka.
Some of the most remarkable international prizes he has received: Premio Europeo Rizzoli, Silver Trophy in 1970, International Advertising Festival of New York, Grand Award in 1989 and 1992, London International Advertising Awards, Grand Award in 1991 and Brno Biennale's silver medal in 1990. The Grand Awards are the only ones in Finland for the time being. Pilve is a honorary member of The Finnish Association of Marketing, Technology and Creativity (MTL).
Field of specialization. Pilve is the multi-talent of Finnish advertising: an advertising planner, a graphic designer and a brand designer. His specialties are creating brands and communication.
Handprint. In this works, Pilve aims at creating “client styles”, personalities for brands and their typical characteristics, which are strongly differentiated in their own categories.
Design philosophy. ”Every problem has a core. Every solution has a core as well. When I find the smallest common denominator for these, it creates the core power of influencing. Someone could call this an idea, but it is much more than that. It is included in the core description and core promise of influential communications. At its maximum, it explodes and occupies the way of thinking and the markets. First the knowledge, then the will. Facts and focus. The brain factory creates a new understanding, and new dimensions appear like ships in fog. In the middle of all this, one has to give chance a chance.”
Sources of inspiration. ”I have artist friends, with whom I discuss creativity, inspiration, work, passion and success. We always end up in consensus on starting every day early and working long hours. If you sit and wait for the inspiration, you miss the opportunity to succeed. ”Nulla dias sine linea.” (No day without a line.) I wrote this in 1972 to be the leading idea for my office. The true sources of inspiration can always be found in people - those, with whom you reach for the stars and those, with whom you are willing to forget your holidays and weekends. Then you notice that you are in a flow that draws you in and takes you away. You will enjoy the speed and you will never wonder, where is all this inspiration coming from.”
Idols. ”Especially the Finnish pioneer of creative design, the inspiring Eero Kinnunen gave us, the youth of the 1960s, this ineradicable idea: ”Use words but love images. Reach for the stars and race with the immortal.” There have been many enjoyable pioneers, e.g. Helmut Krone, David Abbott, Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy, Rosser Reeves, Leo Burnett, Jan Cederqvist, Lars Hall, Leon Nordin etc.”