Take Part. Make Art!
Marimekko celebrates their 60 years with a DIY book and crowd-sourced exhibit in Milan
Over the past 60 years Finnish brand Marimekko has splashed their colorful patterns on everything from sneakers to computer mice, spreading their vision of “happiness, colors and relationships” around the world. Founder Armi Rata once said, “I always wanted to gather people to get them to know each other, enrich their experience and take advantage from this knowledge.”
A riff on this collaborative premise, the iconic brand recently showed the results of a crowd-sourced Facebook competition in an exhibit at Jannelli & Volpi’s Milanese shop to celebrate Marimekko’s 60 years.
Inviting more than 34,000 Facebook fans to be part of the collective global project, the task was to show what they could do with Marimekko fabrics. The most interesting ideas were published on the Marimekko website, while the best authors were invited to the brand’s Helsinki headquarters last March to take part in a Marimekko workshop. The upshot of these creative days became the subject of the group show.
An accompanying book called “Surrur” reveals the creative process behind many Marimekko designers. It also includes an array of DIY projects for transforming common objects into playful products, or how to start from scratch.
Here’s to many more years of Marimekko patterns!
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