Take part in a naming competition! Children’s Design Week’s pink Hobo Mouse mascot needs a name

Read graphic designer Leena Kisonen’s story about how the Children’s Design Week mascot mouse turns from grey to pink and help us name it.

The new Children’s Design Week visual identity is all about colours and animals. It has been created by illustrator Leena Kisonen who wrote a story of how animals find their own colours.

In this sweet story, the Hobo Mouse is tired of greyness and decides to find a new colour. Having interviewed animal friends the Brimstone and the Flamingo, it decides to trust its own taste and becomes the world’s first pink mouse. But this brave little pink mouse doesn’t have a name yet! What would you call Children’s Design Week’s mascot mouse?

You can suggest a name using this form or at any of the HDW Children’s Design Week events starting from 12 June. The name will be published during HDW Children’s Weekend at Kattilahalli from 15 to 16 September. All submitting a name suggestion will participate in a draw to win a new VIMMA product with the #bebrave pattern. We’ll contact the winner in person.

Read more about Children’s Design Week and its pre-events at Weekly Sneak peek to Children’s Design Week main and pre-events. When the pre-events start 12 June in the lobby of the City Hall, kids have an opportunity to build trees to a magic forest and animal vehicles with illustrator Leena Kisonen. The pre-events continue around the Helsinki playgrounds during the summer. More information can be found at the Facebook page.

Kisonen’s whole story about the Hobo Mouse:
The Hobo Mouse – What is your colour?

The Mouse was tired of being grey and decided to go look for a new colour for its fur. But how to know if the colour is right? The Mouse left its hole and soon met a white Weasel. “Why are you so white?” the Mouse asked the Weasel. “I move about in the forest in the winter, and thanks to my white fur I’m able to hide in the snow.” The Mouse went on and met a yellow Brimstone by the flowers. The Mouse asked the Brimstone: “How do you know that you need to be yellow?” The Brimstone replied: “I fly over a field with lots of yellow flowers. I fit in perfectly.” The Mouse went on.

A Bat was hanging upside down in a tree. It was completely black. The Mouse asked: “Why are you black?” “I only move at night, and black is a good colour in the dark,” the Bat said. The Mouse went on and met a bright pink Flamingo. “How did you get so pink?” The Mouse asked. “I decided to have whatever colour I want, and I chose pink,” said the Flamingo.

The Mouse figured animals choose their colours according to what fits them and what they like. But what was the Mouse’s favourite colour? Others said mice need to be grey, but the Mouse didn’t like the grey colour. What colour would be the best? The Mouse liked pink the best because pink is a bright and happy colour – much like the Mouse itself! If all other animals could choose their colours, the Mouse decided to do the same. It decided to trust its own taste and became the world’s first pink mouse.