Meet the product designers behind the Donald Duck 90 merchandise
From apparel to jewelry and backpacks, Disney is releasing exclusive Donald Duck 90 merchandise in honor of the iconic character’s milestone anniversary. As we gear up for the celebration, meet two product designers who helped bring this product line to life!
- Aimee Seth, senior manager, product design and development
- Focus: Bag, backpacks, and travel
- Becky Ormonde, senior manager, product design and development
- Focus: jewelry, timing and vision
What is your Disney story?
Aimee Seth: “I began as an intern at Disney. Afterward, I worked for a few different licensee companies. Like Javier, I got to understand that side of the business. I have now been with back at Disney Consumer Products for 17 years.”
Becky Ormonde: “I've had such a pivotal journey here at Disney. My journey has taken me through different parts of the company, but always in consumer products. I’ve started in soft lines working on apparel, then in central creative and the toy team overseeing branding and packaging, and now I'm back home on soft lines.”
What Donald Duck 90 products did you work on?
Aimee Seth: “[My team] worked with Loungefly to develop the Donald Duck 90th anniversary collection. Specifically, [the] accessories collection.”
Becky Ormonde: “My team worked on the Citizen watch collaboration for Donald Duck 90th Anniversary.”
What is the creative process like?
Aimee Seth: “We work with our third-party brand commercialization partners. Loungefly typically participates in a lot of our Disney anniversaries. They’ve participated in Mickey's 90th Anniversary. [Donald Duck 90] was another anniversary that they wanted to partake in.”
Becky Ormonde: “The process is similar, and it truly takes a village to develop launches from beginning to end. My team and I work with our internal licensing team - aka brand commercialization team - as they start to work on the strategy for an anniversary. Citizen is one of our core licensees and a corporate alliance partner, and they often participate in many activations for consumer products and The Walt Disney Company. We will meet with Citizen and ask them their strategy and what their consumers are hoping to see from Disney. Once we nail down an approved strategy across all teams, we start to work on the creative to be used and drive against unique storytelling. This can take multiple rounds of revisions and updates. The process can take two to four months or longer from start to final approved product.”
What were the key elements that went into designing these products?
Aimee Seth: “We wanted to take Donald Duck's characteristics and showcase them throughout the product line. Donald has this bold swagger about him. He's a showboating duck with a loud swag, and feathery trail, wearing a sailor suit, cap and bow tie. You'll see some of those key attributes of his costume, as well as storytelling elements such as ship anchors and nautical rope details, featured on the product.”
Becky Ormonde: “The team thought it would be great to focus on Donald in his eight-minute short 'Donald’s Better Self' where he is tempted by the anit-conscience (devil) and conscience (angel). At the end of the short, his angel conscience wins out, but we thought it also showed his key traits of being mischievous and short-tempered, which is quintessentially Donald.”
What was your favorite part of working on Donald Duck 90?
Aimee Seth: “What was fun about Loungefly’s bags is this special feature which is a lenticular panel on the front. On one view you see a vintage, black-and-white Donald. When you turn it slightly, you see a modern-day, fully colored version of Donald.”
When will these products become available?
Becky Ormonde: “The Donald Duck 90 Citizen watch collection will be released August-September in time for this Fall holiday season.”
Aimee Seth: “[Loungefly products are] available for pre-sale right now on their website.”
Check out more Donald Duck 90 products available at the Disney Store!
