Retro EPCOT Center Retrospective: Part 1
In 2007, I interned at Disney Design Group. During that time, the majority of my work was done for Hong Kong Disneyland. However, I managed to get a few jobs here and there to do for fun, outside of my team. Most people who know me well, are aware of the fact I harbor a deep passion for all things EPCOT Center. Luckily, due to the popularity of EPCOT’s 25th anniversary, and the public’s willingness to spend money on throwback merchandise, I was able to snag a few jobs paying tribute to my favorite memories.
Early in my internship, I made a point to bug the pin team until they gave me an assignment (anything!). My first pin was in honor of………wait for it…….High School Musical 2! A girl has to start somewhere, at least I got to draw characters. After that, several of us non-pin interns were able to cut our teeth on awesome jumbo monorail pins, thanks to the generosity of full timer Monty Maldovan. Unfortunately we didn’t get the credit, but it was still a great opportunity.
From that point, my goal became to coat my work in as much retro EPCOTy goodness as possible. Old logos, fonts, color schemes, attractions, anything that gave the park it’s original signature look.
My monorail pin was to be Figment themed, and I was thrilled to find out they didn’t mind if I went old school with it. I started by taking elements from an illustration I had made the year previous, while practicing my Adobe Illustrator skills.
I did a really rough mockup and proceeded to ink it all out.
And here’s the final pin!
My favorite accomplishment, and the next bit of merch on my EPCOT journey, was a 5 pin set dedicated to EPCOT Center…actual EPCOT Center, not “Epcot.” This I scored because of fellow intern, Maria Clapsis, bringing my name up in a pin team meeting. I was so so so excited to get this assignment, it was to be my magnum opus.
I pretty much had free reign to go any direction I wanted, and settled on theming each one to a different future world pavillion. The worst part was only have 5 pins to work with (you mean I don’t get 12?). I’m still a little unsure as to whether I made the right choices. I figured I wouldn’t be able to make everyone happy, so I went with attractions that meant the most to me growing up.
Pin 1: Communicore
This was a fairly easy decision, hardly any merch for Communicore existed and it had a lot of cool visual possibilities. I went with the somewhat obvious choice of using SMRT-1, and later used him again in my Vinylmation figure.
Pin 2: The Land
This is the pin I had the hardest time choosing a pavilion for. Originally it was going to be for World of Motion…but honestly I don’t remember WoM that well, and Kitchen Cabaret was a childhood favorite. The other reason I abandoned WoM was that I just couldn’t get a good concept going, my heart wasn’t really in it.
This is the only version of the World of Motion pin I have in my files. It wasn’t going to be this cluttered, I promise! These are all of the elements I was considering. I quickly mocked them up so I could move them around, try things out, etc.
Pin 3: Journey Into Imagination
Easy choice, Figment, Dreamfinder, Rainbow Corridor, good stuff.
Pin 4: Spaceship Earth
This is an homage to a sweet button from the 80′s.
Pin 5: Horizons (of course!)
Last but not least, my favorite all time attraction, Horizons. This was the most fun and ended up being easily the most popular. My one regret is that I couldn’t fit the actual names of the locations on the “choose your own ending” portion. Sorry Brava Centauri.
The final piece for this post, is my SMRT-1 Vinylmation. My little purple Mickey-bot was a product of an open call among DDG artists, to submit ideas for the first set in the series. I submitted a couple other concepts, but this is the one that got picked. Because it was early in the Vinylmation process, no one really knew the limitations of what could be printed on a vinyl toy. The possibilities were seemingly endless.
Part 2 tomorrow……
Fantastic work.
I love the JII artwork. That’s one monorail wrap I wouldn’t mind, especially if it coincided with the return of the attraction. I especially like the call-back in the shape of the sign. Follow Figment to the Image Works!
I definitely regret that I wasn’t paying attention to the pin carts when those EPCOT pins were released. So cool. Your choices were all good, although I hate that you couldn’t fit in Motion (although the Land pin worked out wonderfully). I like the idea of using the guy with the sea serpent, but I LOVE the idea of using the Lean Machine. There was a graphic I remember somewhere in the Transcenter or unload area that would have been a good jumping off point for a design, and there was always the future city in the finale. Lots of iconic bits, but they don’t all go together!
How brilliant would it have been if they’d let you make pins for the unbuilt pavilions…
Anyway, great work.
Oh how I loved that sign. I wanted so badly to steal it from the Comedy Warehouse. I wonder where it ended up…
It would have been very cool to make pins for unbuilt pavilions, and I apologize for motion. Such hard decisions….it really would have helped if I could remember the ride. I had video, but still. I was born a few years off my mark.
(And all those bits were not going to be on the same pin, I think it’s just a jpg I flattened with all the layers on top of each other.)
Thanks for taking the time to comment, means a lot!
It’s the stuff like the call-backs to the sign that make these things great. The color palette is perfect, as well. Straight out of Hench’s playbook.
No worries about Motion – I think that the one you did in its place might be my second fave, and anything with K.K. is good.
Glad it wasn’t going to have all those bits – I thought it was a little busy before I saw your note
Sad that you don’t remember Motion well, but I’ll admit that my own memory is fuzzy at times. This despite the fact that I was old enough that I should remember it well. I think probably the fact that it was the first of the Titans to fall meant that it started to get erased from the mind grapes much earlier.
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Awww…I’m getting all nostalgic looking at the Imagination stuff. I was on the team of cast members who closed the original version of this ride in 1998. I was just a teenager then and I grew up on the attraction and it was a sad, sad night despite the big party we threw after the last guest left the building.
You really captured the essence of everything the ride and the surrounding area used to be.
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