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News • Helsinki • Finland • 2011-10-17

Design Capital prominent this week in New York

World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 is getting ready for next year through promotional events in New York 21-28 October 2011.

Several events are being organised in New York to show that the 365-day programme of the Design Capital year will be one of the most extensive design ensembles ever implemented in the world. The week’s events will include ringing the closing bell at the NASDAQ stock exchange, announcing collaborative projects with the Museum of Arts and Design MAD, and opening a pop-up store to showcase Finnish design.

On Friday 21 October, President of the Republic Tarja Halonen will ring the closing bell at the NASDAQ exchange. The bell-ringing announces to the world that the Design Capital year is drawing near. The event will be televised live on CNBC’s two-hour broadcast Closing Bell, as well as on several other international news channels. Other visitors to NASDAQ include Pekka Sauri, Deputy Mayor of Helsinki, Ritva Jolkkonen, Finland’s Consul General in New York, and Ritva Koukku-Ronde, the Finnish Ambassador in Washington. The occasion starts at 22.45 Finnish time and can be seen live on the NASDAQ website at www.nasdaq.com/about/marketsitetowervideo.asx.

The Design Capital is also launching its collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York. One of its forms is a pop-up store in the museum foyer to showcase Finnish design, which will be open 21-28 October 2011. The Finnish design campaign is also running in the online store Fab.com, which reaches almost 600,000 consumers interested in American design. The online store is open 21 October – 1 December 2011. The online store provides a good channel for introducing Finnish design to North American markets.

The MAD pop-up store stocks Iittala products and a limited supply of products from the Design Capital itself, such as t-shirts and bags. The printed designs on the shirts are by a group of young Finnish designers: Jesse Auersalo, Tommi Musturi, Underware, Aino-Maija Metsola and Tuomas Toivonen. The print on the Design Capital bag is by Oiva Toikka. As well as the above products, Fab.com sells products by Artek, CTRL, Golla Bags, Tonfisk, Muovo, and Verso Design, among others. Some of the products have not been previously sold in the USA.

The collaboration with MAD is launched at an event organised for movers and shakers in the New York design scene and the media, where the Design Capital 2012 programme is also introduced. As well as representatives of the Design Capital, the speakers include the Finnish Consul General in New York, Ritva Jolkkonen, the Deputy Mayor of Helsinki, Pekka Sauri, and the architect Steven Holl, who is particularly renowned in Finland as the designer of Kiasma.

The Design Capital also featured in events in New York in the spring of 2011. The six-day event, Scenarios, promoted Finnish design in North America. The event was organised by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and the Consulate General of Finland in New York, with the help of Design Forum Finland. The programme also included a workshop organised jointly with the Aalto University and the Design Capital’s own Open Identity Workshop.

More information

- www.wdchelsinki2012.fi

- www.presidentti.fi

- www.madmuseum.org

- www.fab.com

- www.nasdaq.com

- Senior communications officer Maarit Kivistö, World Design Capital Helsinki 2012, tel. 040 766 9957, maarit.kivisto@wdchelsinki2012.fi

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