I am Mariama, the founder and designer of Studio Faja. 

I am a Finnish-Gambian visual designer whose passion for storytelling has been present ever since childhood. Creating worlds through writing, drawing and filming with childlike wonder eventually guided me to my current career path through a couple of detours.

My interest in entrepreneurship sparked in adolescence. I had a dream of owning a coffee shop where I would sell ball-jointed dolls that I made myself. Never had I made a doll, for the record. But that dream woke something in me and it took me from high school to vocational school in Helsinki for dressmaking. During those two years in school, I stumbled upon gym training and powerlifting and got interested in body maintenance. Anatomy was already in my interest toolkit due to drawing.

After graduating as a dressmaker, I found myself accepted into an institution for sports massage. My first taste of entrepreneurship came from the years working as a sports masseur. During that time I found myself getting more and more interested in marketing, business models and branding. I also started to miss my creative roots and decided it was time to explore that intuition.

In 2022 I got an apprenticeship as a graphic designer and marketing specialist at a business consulting company. I finally found the career path that would evolve and combine all my interests into one package which would allow me to help people with their dreams.

I noticed that combination of strategic thinking in marketing and creativity of visual design kept my curious mind busy but the hunger for more knowledge grew. So naturally I decided to get a degree for Further Vocational Qualification in Business whilst working. During my years working for others I got to work with multiple interesting clients, build visual brand identities for them and help develop the companies social media marketing and brand.

Studio Faja was born out of a need to explore my identity as a designer more independently. It felt natural to leave the nest so to say. Glad you’ve found my little studio and hope you’ll stay for a while!