Kari Sabine Malmin

Visual Designer & Storyteller

Complex things,explained lightly

Hi, I'm Kari. I tell stories with words and drawings, and take your tangled, technical, nobody-can-explain-it ideas and turn them into pictures and sentences people can feel and remember on the walk back to their desk.

Portrait of Kari Sabine
Portrait of Kari Sabine
do you think everyone knows and sees the same way as you do?
Things that inspire me
  • Poetry

    The fewest words that still hold the feeling.

  • Comics

    Pictures and sentences working together.

  • Fictional characters

    A face for an idea, specific enough that it sticks.

  • The physical world

    Stories close enough to see and feel.

How I work
  1. Listen.

    Look around you, question everything, and ask the dumb questions.

  2. Find the story.

    A specific moment or progression. It's already hiding in the tangle.

  3. Find the spine.

    One sentence. Then one sketch of that sentence.

  4. Draw it quickly.

    Deliberately rough, so it is still cheap to be wrong.

What I deliver
  • 01
    Explainer illustration

    Your research or strategy combined in one image.

  • 02
    Narrative & story design

    I compose and make up simple stories to help people understand and remember complex things.

  • 03
    Systems maps & diagrams

    Flows, journeys, architectures — legible to humans.

  • 04
    Live drawing & workshops

    I'll be at the whiteboard while you argue. It helps.

Journal

15 October 2026

Drawing is dancing with a pencil

5 October 2026

Farmor

3 October 2026

Food sketches

3 October 2026

Practice

Selected work
GNIST — content design and brand 1
GNIST — branding, onboarding and simplification
Data platform · public sector
Bufdir Kommunemonitor — data visualisation tool 1
Bufdir Kommunemonitor
Data visualisation · 2019
KLP pension design 1
KLP — pension portals and interface
Finance · UX
Italia visual concept 1
Italia — travel app concept
Concept · visual design
Latent poetry
Editorial · concept
Timmy Gresshoppe — Westerdals magazine 2013 1
Timmy Gresshoppe
Writing · 2013
Infront — illustrations for the website 1
Infront — illustrations for finance
Finance · illustration
Byte — visual identity 1
Byte — visual identity
Identity · events
Car insurance — illustrated user journey 1
Car insurance — illustrated user journey
Insurance · service
Portrait of Kari Sabine

Kari Sabine (b. 1989) has always been drawn to illustration and writing — and to the creativity that ties them together. After a bachelor's degree in creative writing and many years as a web designer and developer, she is now a UX and service designer, focusing on digital transformation and on helping organizations explain complexity in a visual, simple and playful way. Want to work together? Feel free to get in touch.

karisabine@gmail.com