Collage wins Children’s Design Week competition

A rug design competition was held during Children’s Design Week at Annantalo. The winner of the competition is Helmi Tack, a pupil of the Arabia comprehensive school, with her elaborate collage.

A rug design competition was held during Children’s Design Week at Annantalo. The winner of the competition is Helmi Tack, a pupil of the Arabia comprehensive school, with her elaborate collage.

During Children’s Design Week, a design competition was held at Annantalo. The task was to design and draft a pattern for a rug. The choice of materials and colours was free, and the results are inspiring and versatile. Helsinki Design Week organized the competition in cooperation with SuoMu, the Finnish Association of Design Learning, and Lindström.

Hundreds of school kids and younger children participated in the competition. One of them was Helmi Tack, who came to Annantalo with her school group. She attends the 4th grade at the Arabia comprehensive school and participated in the design week programme and the rug design competition with her class.

“We got to choose what to do here, and I was immediately interested in rug design,” Helmi Tack said.

Workshop was held in September.

The Arabia school made a theme of the design week, and Helmi enjoyed the visit to Annantalo. She did not know the place from before, but the pupils of the Arabia school are very familiar with design. Their curriculum is design-learning oriented.

“I’ve designed and crafted a lot during our arts and crafts classes. I do crafts at home, too, but when I grow up, I’d like to write stories,” Helmi says.

A smooth design process

Helmi elaborately used the collage technique in her work. The sheets of carton and shreds of paper donated by Lekolar inspired the young designer.

“Designing the rug was so much fun. I chose the materials that I liked. It was kind of easy, but after using many different colours, I felt the pattern wasn’t quite ready. So I covered the shreds with some larger pieces, and then I decided that it’s ready,” Helmi explains.

The result is a beautiful, rhythmical ensemble. The staff of Annantalo selected the winner of the competition amongst hundreds of sketches.

“We liked Helmi’s thinking outside the box. The colour combination of her work is really energizing. It’s lovely to come to work and meet the energy rug,” say Annantalo producer Anna Puhakka and Pirjetta Mulari who is in charge of the programme production.

The winning carpet at Annantalo.The rug is on display on the 1st floor of the Annantalo building. The young designer took home a mini version of her rug. Lindström scanned Helmi’s design and printed it on an eco-design rug. Half of the rug’s fibres come from recycled plastic bottles. Each square metre of the rug uses material from approximately 65 plastic bottles.

Read more on Children Design Week 2019. The next event will be held in 7–13 September 2020.