Pattern challenge for designers around the world – 3rd edition

Here comes our third Pattern challenge for designers.

This pattern challenge is dedicated to kids’ patterns and the maternity package for all newborn babies and their parents in Finland provided by KELA, an independent social security institution supervised by the Finnish Parliament. You can read more about the maternity package and our references here. Many textile and clothing brands and producers take part in a public tender to provide parts of the maternity package and many of the products in the box are with a pattern.

Let’s take a closer look at what the Kela wants from the products and patterns. First of all, they need to be gender neutral, there is no different product for boys, girls, or others. Then the pattern themes are preferred to be “Nordic” and not too “exotic”. All the products must be super-washable and that makes also it a challenge for the colors and materials. Kela usually wants the colors to be, not only gender-neutral but neutral in general, so that they would please as many new parents as possible. Contradictory, newly born babies don’t have very good eyesight, so if we want to give the babies joy, the colors should be with good contrast and precise shapes. This is why we boldly suggest this bright and trendy color palette and have chosen it for the inspirational technique of paper crafting. Similar simplified shapes can also be in quilting or crafty screen printing.

So this is the challenge for you designers! How to create a gender-neutral easy-to-use pattern with colors and shapes that a newborn baby can see. If babies are not your thing, nothing stops you from designing for kids or teens.

The Pattern challenge

With this pattern challenge, we want to spread information about good patterns, especially their designers, as well as those who are not yet on our roster. From the participating works, we will choose the three best designs matching this challenge, and share those and the designer’s details both in a blog post as well as in an Instagram Story.

Lastly, publish your pattern design repeat on Instagram using #PFApatternchallenge so we can find it. The deadline for this second challenge is August 31, 2023.