Liialaa's Musical Garden

Concept development – a playful musical storyworld for preschoolers

Liialaa’s Musical Garden is my original children’s storyworld and product family for preschool-aged audiences. Set in a colourful garden, it follows Liialaa and her friends through everyday discoveries and growing up — with a gentle, playful tone designed to work across both digital and print formats.

This page highlights the AVEK-funded audiovisual concept phase, created to explore how original music can support character-led storytelling and to communicate the world’s tone through a short teaser.

My role

• Creator / IP & trademark owner • Producer • Author & illustrator • Concept design (storyworld, characters, visual tone, product family thinking)

Collaboration (AVEK concept phase)

For the AVEK concept phase I collaborated with a composer to explore a musical direction for the storyworld and to create original music for the concept teaser.
• Music & lyrics: Katja Kangas (concept phase collaboration)

Key outcomes

• Defined the storyworld’s core elements:
characters, setting, tone and target age group
• Developed an audiovisual concept approach
where music supports narrative and mood
• Produced a short concept teaser trailer to communicate
the world and its musical direction
• Created visual concept material suitable for
both digital and print development paths

Status

Concept development completed (grant scope).

Concept teaser trailer: “Liialaa loves singing!”
A short teaser introducing Liialaa’s world and the musical approach.Original music composed for the teaser by Katja Kangas.

Liialaa began on my sketchpad as small accordion-style picture books. From there, I expanded the concept into a broader storyworld and explored a musical layer for the characters and scenes.

Designed for preschool-aged children: clear visual storytelling, warm humour, and gentle pacing — leaving space for imagination and listening.