Great news for creative start-ups as Ikea and H&M team up to launch Atelier100

Two giants of the retail world, Ikea and H&M, have teamed up to create what they call an "ideas factory", with the aim of finding, mentoring and promoting designers and small-scale manufacturers in London. 

The Atelier 100 project is aiming to open in London in May and has launched an open call today for creatives from the worlds of beauty and fashion, jewellery, art and music who are based within 100km of the store, which will be in Livat, Ikea's shopping centre in Hammersmith. 

The successful creatives will receive up to £10,000 to help scale up their ideas, with the only limitation being that the products created must be small enough to be carried away from the store. The applicants will be able to sell their existing products in store from May, with the first products produced within the project being available for sale from October 2022.

This will surely be welcome support for designers and small-scale manufacturers around London, and paints a very vibrant and collaborative picture for the future of retail.