Finding inspiration in the creme-de-la-creme of digital services

“Going through the competition entries was genuinely interesting and provided food for thought regarding what type of services are actually important nowadays”, says Anu Mäkelä, Qvik’s Senior Product Designer, who acted as a judge in Grand One’s Best Digital Service category this year.

“In addition to seeing great entries, judging allowed me to meet new people and experience something entirely new – which I thoroughly enjoyed!”

Qvik was extremely happy and proud to have two talented designers judging in Finland’s leading design competitions this year. While Anu got to put her experience into use at Grand One, Mikko Siponen, Qvik’s Product Designer, was making decisions at the Experimental series of Vuoden Huiput. Both designers were selected to be judges through recommendations.

According to Mikko, the experience taught him a lot. “I enjoyed the in-depth discussions with the other members of the jury and exploring well crafted entries was inspiring”, he says. 

“Overall, competitions like this are inspiring and act as platforms to present ambitious and well-crafted work. Although I was looking forward to seeing a wide variety of innovative entries that exceed expectations, I was still surprised to see truly creative and unexpected solutions.”

Mikko Siponen, Product Designer, Qvik

Celebrating quality design and the best digital services

Vuoden Huiput is a yearly competition hosted by Grafia and it promotes quality and originality in design. It awards works from different fields of design in 14 different categories.

Grand One, for one, titles itself as the biggest digital competition in Finland. It’s meant for digital media work published or renewed during the last year. The work entering the competition needs to be designed mainly in Finland.

Although Anu was the only Qvikie in this year’s Grand One jury, she isn’t the only one eagerly waiting for the publishing of the results. This year, Qvik entered with three clients and their new services: Otavamedia’s Kaksplus, Suunto’s Sports Tracker, and Kesko’s K-app.

“People should celebrate their achievements more, and this is an excellent opportunity for that”, Anu concludes.

Gongrats for Anu and Mikko for their roles in the jury! You can find the results of this year’s competitions on their respective websites: Vuoden Huiput (winners announced on 18.4.) and Grand One (winners announced on 21.3.). We wish our clients the best of luck! 🖤