Kornit Collaborates with FIT on Student-Designed Textile Competition

For the second consecutive year, Kornit Digital (www.kornit.com) partnered with the New York Fashion Institute of Technology on a contest that allowed senior design students to print their ecologically themed submissions directly onto roll-good fabrics. The challenge encouraged students at the State University of New York to create original designs relating to the concept of sustainable, local, short-run production while learning about the capabilities of short-run digital printing.

For the second consecutive year, Kornit Digital (www.kornit.com) partnered with the New York Fashion Institute of Technology on a contest that allowed senior design students to print their ecologically themed submissions directly onto roll-good fabrics. The challenge encouraged students at the State University of New York to create original designs relating to the concept of sustainable, local, short-run production while learning about the capabilities of short-run digital printing.

Kornit supplied each of the 28 participating students with up to 10 yards of printed fabric in multiple designs, according to an FIT blog summarizing the event. Each design was printed on the Kornit Allegro roll-to-roll textile printer using Kornit’s NeoPigment inks. Three award winners were chosen, whose work, according to Kornit, will be replicated as fashion items demonstrating the students’ awareness of greener technologies.

“It was our first time doing an engineered digital print, so it was interesting fitting our ideas into the silhouette of a garment,” says senior Elena Kanagy-Loux in the FIT blog post. “It’s an exciting day. We all put a lot of work into this.”

The three finalists – Hyuna Kim (who was selected as the overall winner), Konchok Bercholz, and Kanagy-Loux – were chosen by a team of five fashion designers and three Kornit representatives. Winners were announced on April 25.

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“We are proud to continue this collaboration with FIT, and we certainly plan to continue it in future years as greater awareness increases of both the need for versatility in high-quality digital print and greener working practices,” says Merav Zimmerman, Kornit’s product marketing manager for the Allegro. Adds Paul Borucki, managing director of Kornit Digital North America, "We see a growing demand worldwide for greater education into the potential for using more eco-friendly printing methods and this collaboration endorses the importance of environmental awareness within fabric designs in the future."

“The student work is amazing,” says Joanne Arbuckle, dean of the university’s School of Art and Design. “The college is committed to sustainability. This project is a wonderful example of engaging with the industry in that effort to produce world-class designs in a world-sustaining way.”