Marimekko Designathon competition announced in Slush
Marimekko Designathon competition by Marimekko and Junction challenges the conventions of traditional clothing industry. The event takes place in Helsinki Design Week 2017.
Marimekko Designathon competition by Marimekko and Junction challenges the conventions of traditional clothing industry. The event takes place in Helsinki Design Week 2017.
Throughout 2017, the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence, Marimekko will encourage participation in and create opportunities for innovation.
In collaboration with Slush, Europe’s leading event for technology and start-ups, and Junction, the largest hackathon in Europe, produced by Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (Aaltoes), they will organise a competition entitled Marimekko Designathon for the new generation of creators.
It will look for new innovative ideas and solutions challenging the conventions of traditional textile and clothing industry.
The Marimekko Designathon competition combining design and technology will be held as a hackathon at Marimekko’s headquarters in Helsinki in September 2017 and it will be one of the events of Helsinki Design Week. 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.
This is how the organizers describe the competition:
President and CEO of Marimekko Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko:
“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.”
Slush CEO Marianne Vikkula:
“Unique design and user experience are the cornerstones of the success of many thriving start-ups. Collaboration with Marimekko will open the door for the Slush start-up community to a completely new area of expertise, which in the long term will hopefully have a significant positive impact on the design know-how of local start-ups.”
Head of Junction Ville Leppälä:
“At Junction, we are excited about breaking down barriers between design and technology through our collaboration with the timeless design house Marimekko. The experimental culture of a hackathon such as Junction presents companies with a new and different way to start developing their own business. To the younger generation of creators, the collaboration between Junction and Marimekko is an encouraging example – it will inspire future top professionals to develop their skills broadly and challenge established industries with new innovations and ideas.”
A younger generation print designer Maija Louekari has created a pattern entitled Hyvä 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.