I'd like to welcome you all back to the Designerland attraction typography case studies. In this week’s installation, we will look the typefaces of the gone-but-not-forgotten attraction, If You Had Wings.
If You Had Wings was one of the original attractions at the Walt Disney World Resort. Modeled after Disneyland's Journey through Inner Space, the attraction focused on flight, and appropriately, the attraction was sponsored by Eastern Airlines. The attraction took guests through various exotic ports of call, all set to a catchy 70's theme tune written by Buddy Baker and X Atencio. Over time the attraction saw various name changes due to changes in sponsorship: If You Could Fly, Delta Dreamflight and Disney's Take Flight were the different incarnations of the attraction until Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin finally settled in.
As we've seen in previous posts about Tomorrowland, If You Had Wings used the same sans serif font palette as most attractions in Tomorrowland. The most noted typeface used in the attraction is the classic font, Helvetica. A few display fonts that mimicked the Eastern Airlines logo were also used throughout the attraction. Over time, with new sponsors came new branding, and with new branding came new logos and signage, and new logos and signage meant new fonts! When Delta Dreamflight moved in, more serif fonts were introduced into the attraction. The main serif font used in branding Dreamflight does convey a sense of dreamy flight, especially when set in italic. However, when juxtaposed against other Tomorrowland attraction typography, this attraction seems a tad out of place because both the typography and the attraction itself were more contemporary than futuristic.
Well that does it for this week’s case study. Tune in on Monday for a new Retro '71 shirt concept and thanks for stopping in.
