50 young designers to participate in Marimekko contest

The Marimekko Designathon competition will witness participation of 50 young designers. Finnish home textiles retailer Marimekko is organising the competition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence. Beginning from September 15, 2017, the three day event aims to challenge traditional conventions of the textile and clothing industry.

In collaboration with Slush, a European event for technology and start-ups, and Junction, the largest hackathon in Europe, the competition is designed to provide opportunities for innovation. The international hackathon event combines design and technology in order to come up with new innovative solutions with the help of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. In conjunction with the Helsinki Design Week, the designathon will be held at Marimekko’s headquarters in Helsinki.

A jury composed of international experts and the competition organisers will select the best ideas, and the winners will have the opportunity to present their ideas at Slush 2017.

"We will build a successful future for Finland by doing things together and crossing boundaries open-mindedly. With the Marimekko Designathon competition, we want to invite younger generation creators to challenge the traditional conventions of our industry and develop fresh and unprecedented ideas. The project brings together trailblazing Finnish design and technology in a new way, and we can’t wait to see what innovative solutions, new beginnings, might come out of the collaboration," said Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko, president and CEO of Marimekko.

Maija Louekari, a younger generation print designer, has created a pattern entitled Hyva myrsky (good storm) to symbolise the collaboration between Marimekko, Slush and Junction. The pattern was inspired by a thought of a brainstorm where bold ideas and people meet and new beginnings are born. In the pattern, multi-interpretative storm clouds and flashes of lightning form a good storm which freshens the surrounding world and so enables something new to emerge.

"At Junction, we are excited about breaking down barriers between design and technology through our collaboration with the timeless design house Marimekko,” says Ville Leppälä, Head of Junction.