Welcome back to Designerland. I hope everyone had a good weekend. This week’s post is a Retro '55 and Retro '71 combined post that I hope you all will enjoy.
This week’s shirt design honors the beloved attraction The Country Bears Jamboree. Since it was recently announced that the show will undergo a refurbishment, I thought this would be a fitting time to pay tribute. This design is based more specifically on the Country Bear Vacation Hoedown "overlay" designed for Disneyland, which was rolled out in 1986, replacing the original Country Bear Jamboree show. In May of that same year, Walt Disney World decided to change up their classic show by using this same overlay, but in 1992, WDW restored the show to its original glory.
The shirt design is based on Henry's old camp t-shirt he sported in the show, which was meant to look like an old vintage camp tee that he got while a younger cub at Camp Grizzly. The shirt is basically the same design Disney Imagineers came up with plus our time treasured distressed texture.
Could Camp Grizzly be part of a bigger WED/WDI story dating back to the time when The Country Bears and Moonshine Express was in development? Could it somehow be related to Grizzly Peak and Grizzly Gulch? Needless to say, WDI loves using the word Grizzly when developing attractions based on bears and the frontier...is it all just a coincidence, considering that California's state animal is the Grizzly?
Well that does it for this week’s post. Tune in next week for a new Designerland typography case study and have a swell week!