Graphics Fabrication Design _ Walt Disney Imagineering
Following a quick stint as a custodian at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort I had the greatest honor to be hired on as a Graphics Fabrication Design Intern at Walt Disney Imagineering. I was very fortunate to work at WDI so early on in my career as a designer. This experience immeasurably shaped my perspective on designed objects, user experiences and spectacle in the built environment. When one hears Imagineering, they have this fantastical image in their head, a designer sitting at their desk, creating things that “just” appear in the park as if magic happened… that is not how it works… imagine a few hundred talented designers busting away every minute of their day to guarantee the success of the image and show of the design. In the Graphics Fabrication Design department, we worked on things that can be described as the following “if it is not a building, but on a building or around a building, perhaps a sign or a marquee of a building… we handle it”. In my time I got to work with a wide range of field work ranging from powder coat paint specs to Fibre-Reinforced Plastic [FRP] forms of all shapes and sizes. While each week or so bought many smaller projects, the Capital Project I was assigned to was Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While on this project I specifically worked closely with the creative/art directors, and graphic designers to push forward two designed objects that I am extremely proud of, an “out of this world” galactic pizza panel and a “Cootie Bel Bug”. I was initially hired on to coordinate the graphics being installed in Toy Story Land, and mediate work between WDI and the Proprietor of the process. I was unable to do that role because that scope of work was pushed back beyond my contract date. In addition to Toy Story Land I assisted my supervisor on many shop visits and conducted hours upon hours of surveys across Walt Disney World in search of improper/dated copy on wayfinding signage.
*For legal purposes I cannot share or post a lot or work or images that I worked on or took. Lots of photos were taken backstage, at shop visits and any construction documents that feature a title block and specifications for the designs are a no go :(
Toy Story Land
Galactic Pizza Panels _ Alien Swirling Saucers (attraction)
I want to begin this section with the Galactic Pizza panel insert for the Alien Swirling Saucers attraction. The inspiration for the panels came from the art director on the attraction, feeling that Andy would be into holographic stickers at the time of the mid 90s. We designed this panel to be situated between the FRP shrouds for the support columns of the attraction. The art on the pizza is broken down and differentiated between cheese and toppings, toppings are di-chromatic film and cheese is a faint blue tinted layer. Technically this piece was quite challenging, numerous vendors thought we were crazy for wanting to pursue die cut art with margins to produce this effect.
Cootie Bel Bug _ Woody’s Lunch Box (QSFB location)
By far the weirdest of the major things I contributed to the land. The bug itself is a product of a charrette to design seating and shading devices with sponsorship funds granted by Babybel. While sitting in a meeting to design seating and shading structures, I lost track of my “Inner Andy” and found “Sid”, I began to plug and play with toys that were being used in the surrounding areas and gave birth to the Babybel Cootie we know today. I really owe a lot of thanks to the art director on this for championing me and this design following my departure from the company, it wouldn’t have happened without their help. Initially I had not pulled the tabs for the wings but after meetings with Babybel they stressed the importance of the tab to their branding and changes were made to add this as a piece of flair to the design.
Pizza Turnstile Centerpiece _ Alien Swirling Saucers (attraction)
This was only a meeting long activity but we had a pretty good time arranging toppings to settle on a pleasing composition. A lot of my work was dealing with signage, so pieces like this that are in attractions remind me of how privileged I was to assist such a talented team in the production of this land.
Design Services / Resort Team
While some designers at WDI are placed on Capital Projects, some work in anther extreme referred to as Design Services. These individuals handle many smaller prefects but in a wild flux of work that seemingly never ends. While working with Design Services I assisted numerous installs at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and also did punch sheets for resort wayfinding signage.
Queue Line/Photo Op Placards _ Star Wars Launch Bay
Ya know how it is, one day you show up to Launch Bay to get a pic with that galactic Bad Boi, Darth Vader but you get there and find Kylo Ren is there… Awkward... for this install I was prepping for the Galactic Nights events. We installed a new queue line placard with magnetic pieces for cast members to changed based on wait times. The installer had not done a proper job and these pictures document the poor show and need for a new install.
DVC Window Display Install _Disney Springs DVC Kiosk
Install of a stretched fabric featuring an interior picture of the newly built villas. Textile was stretched on a light box frame and slide against a staged sliding door to give the effect of a preview to assist with membership sales.
Fuel Rods Kiosk _ Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Tasked with specifying a comparable wood grain graphic to use on the Fuel Rod Kiosk. The kiosk would be placed between the California Grill Entrance Desk and the Conference Center Concourse Hallway and needed to blend in. The machines are not compact by any means and if specified incorrectly it would stand out and look unfit for the theme in a Deluxe resort, which is quote on quote, “bad show” of course.
