In love with yarns & design -design competition

This year VM Carpet is celebrating their 50 years anniversary! For the honor of the anniversary we are organizing a design competition targeted for young designers together with Young Finnish Design! The competition task is to design a new woven carpet for VM Carpet´s collection utilizing VM Carpet´s materials: wool yarn, paper yarn, wool and linen yarn, cotton weft or jute cord.

The competition starts on the 12.1.2023 and ends on the 31.5.2023. Three finalists will be selected at VM Carpet´s 50-year celebration party on 7-8.6 at the VM Carpets showroom in Lappajärvi. The winner will be selected at the Habitare fair in September 2023.

Prizes
20004 main prize
2 honorary awards

Selection principles
VM Carpet is in charge of selecting finalists and will choose the jury which chooses all the winners
Design competition proposals need to demonstrate high quality product design know-how

The competition proposals are evaluated especially on the following criteria
-design and design style
-durability and functionality of the product
-suitability for industrial production
-principles of sustainable development
-Make sure to consider the potential for commercial use and competitive pricing of the product

Liina Blom

Liina Blom has twenty years of experience as an international designer and creative director. In her design work, she combines futurology, material and production know-how and the idea of the final application. Through these, she creates new, durable and soulful products that are as long-lived as possible – and she does it with great zeal!

Working with VM Carpet, Liina has been able to implement carpet designs by combining high-quality and practical materials such as wool and paper, but she has also designed products for wet spaces and tried new, even bold production solutions and materials such as metal. She has most recently been recognised for her skills in the autumn of 2016 when she won the MoOD AWARD in Belgium.

Liina describes the idea behind the Valkea rug she designed for VM Carpet like this: “A luxurious moment in the pale shimmer of a silent winter night, while you curl up in something soft and warm. Behind every product I design there’s a story, the play of materials and weave, and the idea of its ultimate use. The Valkea rug offers quality and a sprinkle of the familiar, while wool and paper bring a twist to its woven surface.”

Tuulikki Peltonen

Tuulikki Peltonen is a textile and surface designer who is specialized in woven textiles and surface pattern collections. She has graduated as a Master of Arts from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture with the Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design major. Her way of designing is characterized by craft skills and a strong interest in experimenting with different materials, textures, and color combinations. In the textile products designed by Tuulikki, one can find carefully considered, simplified textural rhythms, but also playful and colorful styles. Product quality and sustainability are important to her.
In cooperation with VM Carpet, Tuulikki has used her weaving and material knowledge and designed rug models for the home, of which the latest is the Pajukko paper yarn rug. She describes the design work of Pajukko like this:
“I weave small samples when designing rugs, and so also with the Pajukko rug. One theme I wanted to express through weaving, was Nordic beautiful everyday life. The domestic willow dye combined with brown undyed paper yarn and the effortlessly elegant weave bring calm Scandinavian aesthetic to the home.”