Umeå's latest crowdfunding project is the satirical book The Umeå Handbook. The book is the main attraction and gift to contributors in the kickstarter campaign launched by Umeå Today. The goal of the campaign is to fund the development of Umeå Today, the news site with local journalism about Umeå, for all Umeå residents.
The Umeå Handbook contains 240 pages of comical explanations and satirical commentary on life in Umeå - customs and culture, politics, fashion, and more. In other words, it's not a list of the city's restaurants or places to visit. Erik Campano, the entrepreneur and editor behind the book, says it's aimed at all kinds of people - from native Umeå residents and new arrivals to occasional visitors from near and far.
The world's coziest city - "UMEÅ MORE MYS"
According to Erik, the starting point of the book is that Umeå is the world's cosiest city. This comes from the fact that the people of Umeå really know how to turn cold harsh winters and long bright summers into an expression of cosiness that has so much more depth than what can be described in the English word 'cozy'. Whether it's costumed brandy ball players happily rumbling around the meadows, work colleagues taking hour-long coffee breaks with kale chips and cloudberry licorice balls, or the cute igloos that spring up all over Ålidhem after the snowstorms.
Coziness is coziness on steroids and nobody cozies up more than the people in Umeå. Our book takes the whole concept of cosiness out into the big wide world - and hopefully this will help us put this vibrant growing city on the map," explains Erik.
Erik's love for Umeå is palpable and not only does he want to put Umeå on the map, but this love is evident through the goal of the kickstarter campaign. If the company succeeds with the campaign, half of the proceeds will go to finance the development of the news site Umeå Today. This will include weekly online TV news, daily news articles, editorials and satire. In other words, more news about Umeå, for all Umeå residents.
Read more and back the Kickstarter campaign here: http://kck.st/2Q3vysu
The Umeå Handbook is written by Erik Campano, designed by Susanne Fahlén Hörnberg and illustrated by Daria Chrobok and Hanna Nordin.
