ISKU 90 design competition COMPETITION PROGRAMME COMPETITION ASSIGNMENT Isku will be celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2018. Just eleven years younger than Finland, Isku wants to honour its native country by organising a design competition that will celebrate world-renowned Finnish design expertise. Isku is a Finnish family business established in Lahti in 1928. The company s furniture factories and production facilities are still located in Lahti. Isku complies with the ISO 9001 quality system and actively develops ecological production: Isku was the first company in the industry to be awarded the ISO 14001 environmental certificate and, today, its entire production is PEFC certified, meaning that the origins of all the wood it uses are known and the wood has been produced according to the principles of sustainable development. The ISKU 90 furniture design competition is a two-stage product design competition that aims to find furniture product families suitable for Isku s industrial production and sales. Isku designs, manufactures and markets furniture and holistic interior design solutions for homes, schools, offices and all public spaces. In addition to a chain of stores covering all of Finland, Isku operates in the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, Poland, Russia and the Middle East. The competition now seeks innovative new solutions in four different categories: Work, Home, Learning and Care Environments. In order to succeed in the competition, entries must show excellent product design skills. The assessment will emphasise the usability of the products, taking into account various user groups. The competition jury will pay attention to the manufacturability of the products and their suitability for serial production, appropriate choice of materials, artistic expression, innovativeness of the product design, manufacturing methods, product durability and clarity. The entries must also take into account the possibility of pricing the products competitively. SCHEDULE AND STAGES OF THE COMPETITION The competition period is from 12 September 2017 to 10 March 2018. The competition will be announced on Isku s electronic channels on 12 September 2017. The competition materials are available on the competition website at http://isku90.fi/
The competition consists of two stages; after the first stage, five (5) entries will be selected for the second stage. First stage of the competition: 12 September 3 November 2017 3 November, 12:00 noon: deadline for entries in the first stage 17 November: the pseudonyms of the five (5) contestants selected for the second stage will be published on the competition website at http://isku90.fi/ and in Ornamo s bulletins. Second stage of the competition: 17 November 2017 31 January 2018 At the second stage of the competition, the finalists will create/commission models of their entries. The finalists will have access to Isku s Design Lab and its materials. Each finalist will also receive a sum of 1,000 (one thousand euros) to support the creation of the model. Results of the competition The winners will be notified in person by 19 February 2018. Announcement of the results The winners of the competition will be announced by 2 March 2018 on the competition website. The entries awarded with prizes and honourable mentions will be displayed in an exhibition. The award ceremony and opening of the exhibition will take place at Isku s head office in Lahti in connection with the company s 90th anniversary party. COMPETITION ENTRIES Designer s contact information and competition confidentiality The competition is confidential. Upon submitting the competition entry, the contact information and selected pseudonym of the designer(s) must be submitted by e-mail. The e-mail must include the following information: Name(s) of the designer(s) Pseudonym Telephone number Address E-mail address. The competition entry must be submitted as an e-mail attachment and titled with the pseudonym and name of the entry. The pseudonym must contain at least five letters.
Competition entries must be submitted by 3 November 2017, 12:00 noon, to: muotoilukilpailu@isku.fi. The e-mail must be titled ISKU 90 design competition. Stage 1 competition entry The first-stage competition entry for a furniture product family must include materials in electronic format: Your competition entry should be only one PDF file with up to four A3 pages. The maximum file size is 10 MB. The PDF can also be compressed in zip format. The competition jury will print out the competition entries in A3 landscape format (max. 4 pcs per entry). There must be projection drawings of the products and, if necessary, a section drawing showing the main dimensions. Conceptual renderings must illustrate the use and operation of the products. A written description must be prepared of the product line (max. 2,000 characters including spaces), describing the idea of the product line and the structural and material solutions. The text must fit the A3 size. Stage 2 competition entry The competition organisers will provide information on the competition website to the contestants selected for the second stage. At the second stage, the contestants will be asked to further develop their plans in terms of design as well as material study, manufacturability and usability. They will also be asked to complement their entries with a spatial visualisation of the product family and the environment in which it is to be used. Isku will help the finalists in the creation of models/prototypes by offering materials and workspaces as well as 1,000 (one thousand euros) to support the creation of the model. Questions about the competition The contestants are entitled to ask questions about the competition programme. All questions about the competition must be submitted by 12 October 2017 by e-mail to kilpailuinfo@isku.fi. Answers to the questions will be published on the competition website by 22 October 2017. Returning the competition entries The competition organiser will not return any entries not selected. The competition organiser undertakes to destroy all electronic competition entries after the competition. The competition organiser is not entitled to make use of the electronic competition entries. PRIZES The total prize sum is 24,000 and will be distributed as follows: 1st prize: 12,000
2nd prize: 6,000 3rd prize: 3,000 Public vote prize: 3,000 The competition jury may award honourable mentions and, by a unanimous decision, distribute the prize sum in some other way. COMPETITION JURY (The competition jury will elect a chairperson at its first meeting.) Petra Lassenius, Interior Architect SIO, Ornamo representative Saara Renvall, Interior Architect, Designer SIO, Ornamo representative Raimo Räsänen, Interior Architect SIO Antti Olin, Interior Architect SIO, Design Director, Isku Seppo Vikström, Chairman of the Board, Isku Arto Tiitinen, CEO, Isku Competition contact person: Mona Auervuolle, Marketing and Communications Assistant, Isku COMPETITION ORGANISERS The competition is organised by Isku-Yhtymä Oy. The competition programme has been prepared in co-operation with Ornamo, the Finnish Association of Designers. RULES 1. Isku 90 design competition. 2. COMPETITION ORGANISERS The Isku 90 design competition is organised by Isku, Finland s largest industrial operator in the furniture industry. Isku s factories are located in Mukkula, Lahti. Isku wants to keep investing in the development of design and production. With the competition, Isku believes it can open the doors of Finnish furniture manufacture and production even wider for design professionals. Finnish design and furniture manufacture has plenty of potential globally. This is what Isku believes and invests in.
3. PURPOSE OF THE COMPETITION The goal of the competition is to discover product families suited for industrial manufacturing and sales in four different categories: Work, Home, Learning and Care Environments. The competition is a two-stage product design competition. 4. RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE The Isku 90 design competition is organised in Finland and is open to designers, interior architects, architects, students in the field and the teams formed by them. The competition languages are Finnish and English, so the competition entries may also be submitted in English. Isku s own personnel cannot participate in the competition. The competition entries must be previously unpublished. Detailed instructions for participation are provided in the competition programme. 5. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA In order to succeed in the competition, entries must show excellent product design skills. The assessment will emphasise the usability of the products. The competition jury will pay attention to the manufacturability of the products and their suitability for serial production, appropriate choice of materials, artistic expression, innovativeness of the product design, manufacturing methods, product durability and clarity. The entries must also take into account the competitive pricing of the products. 6. ENTRIES TO BE EXCLUDED Entries that have not been submitted by the deadline indicated in the competition programme or that do not meet the requirements of the competition programme will be excluded from the competition. Exclusion from the competition will be decided by the competition jury. Isku s own personnel cannot participate in the competition. 7. PRIZES AND ANNOUNCEMENT One contestant will be awarded the first prize in the competition. The competition jury may award honourable mentions and, by a unanimous decision, distribute the prize sum in some other way. The prizes will be paid to the winners within a month of the announcement of the results. The prizes are tax-free. The prize includes the right to use the Isku 90 design competition logo with the competition entry. The designer of the winning entry undertakes to assist in presenting the work by guiding the project and providing the necessary models or drawings of the products so that the competition organisers are able to produce models of the awarded plans for the exhibition.
8. RIGHT TO USE AND COPYRIGHT TO THE COMPETITION ENTRIES The copyright to each entry is owned by its creator(s). If a team participates in the competition, the participants must mutually agree on the division of their rights to the prize in writing before participating in the competition. For products taken into production, Isku has a right of priority for negotiating with the designer(s) of the competition entry on the rights to use, manufacture, market and sell the products. Isku also reserves the right to be the first negotiate the production of other pieces of design work awarded in the competition. The negotiations must be conducted within six months of the announcement of the competition results. The person submitting the entry assures that, to his/her knowledge, the entry does not violate any rights of others and is not a reproduction of any model published earlier. If desired, contestants may protect their competition entries with design rights before submitting them. 9. CONTRACT ON MANUFACTURE The start of manufacture of the awarded product line will be subject to separate contract negotiations between the designer(s) and Isku. 10. COMPETITION JURY The winners of the Isku 90 design competition will be selected by the competition jury named in the competition programme. The competition jury has approved the competition programme and rules. 11. COMPETITION CONTACT PERSON The competition contact person appointed by Isku is Mona Auervuolle. The competition contact person s tasks are to ensure that the contestants retain their anonymity, register the competition entries, compile the entries for handling by the competition jury and answer queries regarding the competition. The competition contact person has no vote in the jury. 12. COMPETITION PROGRAMME The competition schedule, registration procedure, product presentation material, participation procedure and prize sums are indicated in the competition programme. 13. RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMPETITION ENTRIES The competition organiser is responsible for the safety of the competition entries after receiving them. 14. CONFIRMATION OF FAMILIARISATION WITH THE COMPETITION RULES AND PROGRAMME By participating in the competition, the contestant confirms that he/she accepts the competition rules, competition programme and related terms and obligations and holds the rights to the product or product line entering the competition.
Upon participating in the competition, the participant gives the organisers the right to use communications materials made about the product (for example, product images in printed and electronic format) free of charge.