Announcing the launch of the competition, the Presiding Officer said: “As part of our activities to mark a decade of devolution we are launching a competition to design an official Scottish Parliament tartan. Tartan is not only an internationally recognised symbol of our country, but the tartan industry also makes a significant contribution to Scotland's economy. The competition will use the talent of Scotland’s design students to generate a unique tartan which I hope both MSPs and members of the public will enjoy wearing in the years to come.”
The competition is open to all current textile and design students studying at thirteen Further and Higher Education establishments across Scotland. Students are invited to enter their tartan design by the closing date of January 30. Judging will be carried out in March, and the production of the cloth will be completed in time for the Presiding Officer to wear at the 10th anniversary event on 1 July 2009.
The winning design will be exclusively used by the Scottish Parliament for items sold in the Parliament shop and for marketing and publicity. The new tartan will be registered with the new Scottish Tartans Register as “the official Scottish Parliament tartan”.
The winning entrant will receive a length of the finished tartan and an invitation to the 1 July event. Both the winning entrant and two runners-up will be offered paid industry work placement opportunities.
Background
The competition is organised in conjunction with the following:
- Scottish Textile Academic Group (STAG) which represents 13 colleges and universities across Scotland offering textile and related courses.
- Skillfast – UK
- The Scottish Tartans’ Authority
