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By Heidi Mäenpää
Last summer Fazer and Rovio held an art work competition in which I participated before heading to the Netherlands for my exchange period. A couple of months later I was notified that in addition to winning the monthly prize of August I had been selected as one of the three main prize winners. The main prize included a tour at the Rovio headquarters in Espoo and the Fazer Chocolate Factory in Vantaa, and I was allowed to take one person with me. I chose the biggest Angry Birds fan I know: my cousin Niilo, who also had helped me with the drawing by providing excellent feedback.
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| The winning artwork |
So at the end of October I flew from the Netherlands to Finland and after a couple of days of rest at my parents' place me and my cousin headed to Helsinki, where we stayed for the night and in the morning joined all other winners and competition representatives at the Rovio headquarters. After a cup of coffee we sat down in one of the video rooms and were given a few presentations. The most interesting one, in my opinion, was the presentation of the animation department because they showed an in-production episode of their new animation series. I really liked the style! Unfortunately we had to sign an NDA when we entered the building so much that was shown can't be shared in here.
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| Niilo enjoying a game of Bad Piggies at Rovio |
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| The video room was cozy (and a great place for gaming!) |
After receiving wonderful prizes to take home (the plushies were oh-so-cute!) and having lunch at Rovio we finally headed to the Fazer chocolate factory. There we were treated to wonderful Angry Birds themed cakes and given a presentation about the factory and the Angry Birds Sweets campaign.
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| Cake! A lot of cake! |
When everybody had had enough cake we headed to the factory area. There we were given special clothes to be allowed to go inside the production areas of the factory. And we got to wear the greatest red caps the entire day! We walked through the history exhibition, which was actually very interesting! Do visit there if you get the chance. We got to see chocolates being made, huge machines cooling chocolates, a recently malfunctioned Geisha machine (so much filling. Everywhere. I am glad I am not the one cleaning that up!) and of course got to decorate our own chocolate bars. Everybody had a wonderful time, thanks to our great guides.
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| All the winners posing in fashionable attire |
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| My awesome self-decorated chocolate bars |
Here is a video of our day at Rovio and Fazer:
Afterwards we got treats and a gift card to the Fazer store within the factory. I was able to get a few packages of Salmiakkisuklaa to take back to the Netherlands. Most Dutch people are crazy about that stuff!
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| A picture with all our Angry Birds & candy booty! |
It was a wonderful day, and I think both Rovio and Fazer did a great job with the arrangements. I thank especially Satu Räsänen from Fazer for making sure everything worked out as well as it did. And I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for the Media programme, it has taught me a lot about creating digital art!
If you are an IMP, I suggest you participate in as many competitions as possible! And if you are not an IMP... The application time is now! What are you still waiting for?
