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News • Helsinki • Finland • 2012-04-20

Design takes over Duckburg in the Donald Duck Design special edition

What is design in 2012? It\'s a current topic which will also be explored by Donald Duck, albeit in a rather roundabout manner, in the WDC Helsinki 2012 special Donald Duck Design edition.

In the story, written by Kari Korhonen and illustrated by Spaniard Miguel Fernandez Martínez, everyday life at Duckburg blends smoothly with the past, present and future of Finnish design.

- I hope that Donald Duck Design will encourage people of all ages to think about questions concerning design. And of course, I would also like to congratulate Duckburg on becoming one of the few and far between Design Capitals, says WDC Helsinki 2012 executive director Pekka Timonen, simultaneously revealing a little of the plot.

The 68-page story features characters who strongly resemble Finnish designers like Alvar Aalto and Vuokko Nurmesniemi. The Design edition is to be published in four languages; Finnish, Swedish, English and German.

- As soon as Helsinki was chosen to be a World Design Capital, I got the idea of making the design theme a part of Donald Duck. There are plenty of design references to spot in the special edition, says Donald Duck Editor-in-Chief Aki Hyyppä.

This appears to be the first time that 78 year-old Donald Duck has found himself a career as a designer.

- Although the world of arts is not a completely foreign environment to Donald, to the best of my knowledge, he hasn\'t tried out the demanding profession of designing before. The storyline is familiar: brimming with self-confidence, Donald immediately gets to work without any realistic chances of success, says Kari Korhonen, writer of Donald Duck Design.

The special edition, published on Friday 20 April, also comes with a bonus story about Gyro Gearloose drawn in 1961 by Carl Barks: Monsterville. In it, Barks envisages what Duckburg would be like if cars floated above the ground, factories were over-automated and even Uncle Scrooge had too much money.

The Donald Duck Design special edition is part of Sanoma Magazines Finland\'s WDC Helsinki 2012 programme, and is carried out in co-operation with UPM. The cover of the magazine is printed on UPM Finesse paper, and the pages are printed on UPM Star Matt paper.

Donald Duck subscribers received the design story written by Kari Korhonen delivered to their door, as the story of Donald and his friends in the wonderful world of design was also published in the normal Finnish Donald Duck magazine on Wednesday 18 April 2012.

The single Donald Duck copy no. 16 will be available for purchase at most magazine points Lehtipiste around the country until Tuesday 24 April.

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