Linea Matei, a student at Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design, has been chosen as the winner of Mactac’s “Bright Young Things Take Hackney” graphic design competition, beating a field of more than 200 global entrants. The decision follows Linea’s recent Mactac-sponsored visit to London, where she and seven competition finalists were given the opportunity to further develop their initial creative ideas with the support of creative and technical teams from Mactac and Hackney Walk, a retail destination in East London.
Linea’s work will be installed on a two-storey wall at Hackney Walk, to be seen by millions of people who visit the retail centre and online. She will collaborate with Mactac’s design and large format print partner, Onward Display and with installation partner GESS to complete the installation. The design, along with the other finalists’ work, will also be featured on social media and will take centre stage at the Mactac exhibition at FESPA Global Print Expo 2018, Europe’s largest exhibition for the wide format print industry, 15-18 May.
Douglas Spencer, sales manager UK for Mactac, highlighted the quality of entries from the students: “We launched this competition in collaboration with Arts Thread because we wanted to see how design students would respond to this large and iconic display area and learn how our products can play a role in their design. Giant, colourful graphics of this kind can make a very pronounced impact, and we were certainly expecting some good ideas, however, the sheer breadth of creativity that was shown by these students was genuinely surprising and inspiring.”
The original competition panel of judges was joined by a number of representatives from the Hackney Walk initiative for the final selection, including architect Rafael Vinoly. Competition judge Jack Basrawy, Chairman of Hackney Walk, said that the final decision was tough: “It goes without saying that our job as judges was difficult, but Linea Matei’s design is a very worthy winner. She has embraced the scale of the two-storey canvas available to her, creating an image that will stop people in their tracks. We are very much looking forward to seeing the final installation at Hackney Walk.”
The Mactac brand’s parent company, Avery Dennison, is this week launching a large interactive installation in Times Square NYC, a result of the second “Bright New Things” competition, in partnership with Arts Thread and in conjunction with Design Pavilion as part of NYCxDesign, New York City’s annual celebration of design.
The installation, powered by Avery Dennison’s new Vela dynamic window display technology and Avery Dennison’s Janela Smart Products Platform opened to the media on 11 May and to the public from 12 to the 20 May.
