Retro '71

 

Welcome back to another edition of Retro '71, the shirts we all want but can't have. 

This weeks post came about when I was talking to one of my friends about the vintage Mickey Mouse shirt that's currently floating around the parks. I was sad to find out that the DDG only offered it in a female cut.  My friend and I talked about the vintage shirt sold back in the day that incorporated the retro Mickey face, the classic WDW logo and the castle icon. I knew I had to recreate it for Designerland. 

What's even more interesting is that JUST today someone tweeted me asking if I could recreate the design for them. I told them to check the blog tonight. I hope I did it justice!?!?!?

I decided to offer up two versions of the design because I didn't feel right just recreating it..it only took 30 minutes to do so I had to challenge myself with a second concept where I slightly changed the colors and added some outer strokes and placed it on a new ground color. Let's face it, white tees are sometimes just blah (even if the design is amazing). I also added some vintage washing texture to complete the Retro '71 look. Personally I'd go with the original design, on a white tee with either red or black accenting neck and arm rings.

Well that does it for this weeks post. I have so many fun and interesting things in the works that I just can't find the time to get to those blasted typography case studies. Keep your fingers crossed and send some good vibes my way in hopes that a project I'm working on with a creative counter part get's the green light. Okay until next week, thanks for stopping by and see you soon!

Retro '71

 

 

Greetings folks, and welcome to yet another edition of the Retro 71 apparel line. This week’s concept is another design based on the old logo for the Magic Kingdom. This logo is probably my second favorite logo Disney designers have ever used to brand the happiest place on earth.

The typeface is a heavily stylized and modified version of the classic Bookman Swash. Subtle details have been added, such as the median spurs which give it more of a regal flair. I added the original Cinderella Castle icon to the logo’s left side in order to balance the “THE” in the logo. It also gives it a little more visual interest beyond just a simple typeset logo. For the color palette I chose two colors I feel best represent the Magic Kingdom: an orangish-red and a yellow.

 The two different-colored logos were then offset to give it more depth and a retro feel as if the print was not correctly aligned during registration. Lastly, the time-honored texture was added. The entire design works best on a shirt that is sandy cream with a hint of brown. Orange, yellow and brown were a typical color palette from the 70's—it was used everywhere from apparel to kitchens.  In the end, it's a simplistic design that fits perfectly into the apparel line.

 

Well that's about it for this week. Hurry back next week for a new attraction sound board as well as other fun Designerland offerings. Until next time, have a great week and see ya soon!

Retro '71

I would like to extend a big thanks to all the visitors and fans that have shown interest in the Adventureland Dole Whip Shirt. At present I have roughly 25 people interested, and if we're going to actually get these printed off, I would need to get that number up to 100 people!  The more people we can get, the lower the cost is for everyone. If you're still serious about the shirt, let's get the news out there. Please help me by hitting up the various Disney forums, Facebook pages, Twitter and so on . . . it's time to summon the twilight bark!!!!! And now on to this week’s post . . .

This week’s Retro '71 shirt is another concept inspired by an old park brochure. Drawing inspiration from the 1981 Walt Disney World Resort brochure, I recreated the Tomorrowland logo. The logo depicts an almost Transformers-like type treatment with its glossy gradients and pairs it with a spaceman Mickey in weightless orbit high above.

When recreating this art, one begins to pick up on subtle clues that the original was hand illustrated/created, such as the weights and heights of the characters are slightly off.

This has been one of the more time-consuming Retro' 71 designs. While I'm happy with the outcome, this design would be rather pricey to actually produce due to the amount of colors used within the design. Remember the more ink, the more money that goes into production. Also, Retro '71 shirts are all water-based inks, and these are more expensive than standard plastisol inks.

Typography is usually the first thing I look at—if the type treatment is unusual, interesting or just plain cool, then the chances are good that I’ll feel compelled to recreate and manipulate the design. However, I really enjoyed recreating the character artwork for a change, and I may add a few others to the line. That about does it for this week—once again, thanks for visiting!

Snow White's Scary Adventures

 

Welcome back, and for you first-time visitors, welcome! In this week’s Designerland Typography Case Study we'll be looking at the typefaces from another one of Disney's classic dark ride attractions, Snow White's Scary Adventures. Snow White's Scary Adventures is one of the original attractions that remain from Disneyland's opening day back in 1955. The attraction originally opened under the name Snow White and her Adventures. At the time, Imagineers might have been a little too avant garde in having guests take on the role of the beloved beauty. Guests didn't quite understand the attraction from this perspective and often asked why Snow White wasn't featured. Needless to say, the Imagineers quickly added her to the attraction to please the guests. Over time, the attraction has seen some minor upgrades to the show-building facade and also a name change due to parents complaining that the ride was a tad on the scary side. I have to agree with the parents: that attraction scared me as a child—when that wicked Queen turns from her mirror, I would always look away. Such a simple gag but HIGHLY effective.

The attraction loosely follows the plotline of the animated feature we all know and love. While Disneyland had it first, the attraction quickly became a staple of the other theme parks. The Walt Disney World Resort, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris have their own versions as well, but that's soon to change. With the plussing of Walt Disney World's Fantasyland, Imagineers have decided to step it up a notch with an entirely new attraction based on this Oscar award-winning feature. I can only imagine the typography and signage the designers will come up with!

When looking at the typography of Snow White's Scary Adventures, there actually aren’t too many fonts to be found. This is pretty much the case with most Fantasyland attractions: limited space, shorter-length queues, and not too heavy on the thematics and atmospheric details of the attraction. Most of the typefaces of Snow White's Scary Adventures come from what I call the classic Disney Fantasyland font palette: Black Letter, Gothic, Old English, and Serif. While the fonts listed are mainly European fonts derived from British origins, the classic Brothers Grimm tale of Snow White was from Germany. Even though the main typefaces aren't really from the story’s point of origin, they still work with the overall look and feel of Fantasyland. In addition to these more typical fonts, this attraction also features Art Nouveau. But what does the Art Nouveau period have to do with Fantasyland and Snow White??? Actually, it really fits when you study some of the stylings that Disney's Animators brought to the feature film. When watching the movie, one can notice the Queen’s elaborate peacock throne—the throne’s design slightly resembles the work of famed Art Nouveau artist, Frederik Mucha. It just so happens that Disney's designers used an Art Nouveau display font for signage warning of the Wicked Witch. Was this planned from the start or simply a happy accident? I'd like to hope it was all a part of the designers’ plan.

That concludes this week's adventure in typography. See you back on Monday for a new addition to the Retro '71 apparel line. Until next time, have a great weekend!

Backstage Magic with Mickey Mouse

In this week’s case study we'll be looking at the magical typography used throughout the new Backstage Magic with Mickey Mouse character meet and greet.

On April 1^st of this year, the Main Street Exposition Hall changed its name to the newly renovated Town Square Theater. The Theater now includes two elaborate character meet and greets: one for the Disney Princesses and one for the main mouse. The new character meet and greets are the first to utilize Disney's FASTPASS ticketing system, which now guarantees guests an audience with the beloved mouse.

Imagineers designed this new experience to resemble a turn-of-the-century magic show, where Mickey is the main magician and the guests get to venture backstage to interact with him before his next act of people-pleasing prestidigitation. 

While in line, guests are treated to humorous and clever advertising bills for Mickey the Magnificent. The posters depict Mickey and some of his noteworthy feats of illusion. Using cutting edge technology mixed with some good old fashioned mathematical magic, a few posters actually interact with guests as they wait. 

These posters set the stage for some amazing type specimens. The designers of the various posters and signage really streamlined the font palette. Most of the typography comes from one particular type foundry, which is noted for producing turn-of-the-century, elaborate display fonts. Some of the classifications of fonts seen throughout the new meet and greet area are: Western, Victorian, Script, Late 1800's, Early 1900's, and Decorative. Main Street U.S.A. has a great many fonts used from this foundry, and if one were to ask me where to find Disney Park fonts with that Main Street feeling, I would recommend this one foundry right off the bat. What is this foundry you ask? Well . . . a true type magician never reveals his secrets.

I think that does it for this week’s typography case study. Tune in Monday for another Retro 71 concept and for those of you who have enjoyed the Haunted Mansion Soundboard app, I pleased to inform you that I have created 2 new soundboard apps and have a 4th one in the works, so tune in for these real soon! Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Retro 71

This week’s Retro 71 shirt concept is based on the 1989 Walt Disney World Resort ticket art. I remember this particular design among others from my childhood, from a time before the key card tickets came into play. I always enjoyed the iconography of the tickets, so what better place to appropriate these designs than for the Retro 71 line. 

The color palette is taken from a ticket from a later date, but the design remained the same. The muted teal greens and washed-out creams remind me of how the tickets would look toward the end of our vacations: highly used with lots of wear and tear. I always enjoyed the paper/cardstock Disney used for the older tickets. By the end of our trips, the paper would become soft from wear and the cotton fibers would begin to pill. With that in mind, I added some aging and distressed textures to the design. 

Well that does it for this week’s Retro 71 installation. The apparel line is really taking shape, and judging by the responses from readers, I think it could be a huge success. Thanks for stopping by and have a good week. Make sure to come back this week—I have a special treat in store. See you soon!

Pirates of the Caribbean

This week we set sail with some of the wildest fonts to ever terrorize the Spanish Main as we look at the typography of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean. What can be said about this all-time classic that hasn't already been covered on many a Disney blog, book or fan site? 

On a personal note, Pirates of the Caribbean is my all-time favorite Disney attraction. I have many memories of my dad and I at Disney World late at night during the extended hours. We would end our nights continuously riding this classic, seeing how many times in a row we could get in. My dad loves to tell the story of how he could never keep up with me as I ran from the exit, through the gift shop and back to the entrance. The only time I would ever pause was to stop and purchase one of my MUSTS from the shop: a mini skull necklace which was made of plaster with a rhinestone “diamond” in one of the eyes. How I treasured it! Despite the countless times my parents had to buy that exact same necklace, I haven’t managed to keep a single one. I keep a weathered eye out on eBay from time to time, but have never seen one up for grabs.

The first Pirates of the Caribbean opened at Disneyland in 1967, and it was originally designed as a walk-through wax museum-like attraction. However, the plans changed when WED decided to incorporate some of the new animatronic technologies they had created for the World’s Fair. The attraction became an instant success. When Walt Disney World opened its gates in 1971, fans demanded that the show be brought to the Sunshine State. Disney World's Pirates attraction opened in 1973 with some slight modifications from the original. As we all know, most every park Disney has built from here on out has a version of this masterpiece.

When looking at the type used by designers, we see a wide variety in classification of display fonts. Most of the typography is based on classic 60's and 70's fonts with a few subtle nods to the sea fairing, scripty, pirate-looking fonts like Caslon Antique. It wasn’t until the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise that some of the typography changed, mainly at the Walt Disney World attraction, where we now see the font from the films’ titles now branding the attraction. Once again, we see our favorite font, Bookman Swash, along with some other notable 70's fonts like Columbus. Disneyland's attraction has a larger variety of typography as compared to the Walt Disney World attraction, so most of the fonts in this week’s study come from the Anaheim original.

The one thing I enjoy about the typography of the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions is the use of such dated and classic fonts. This one attraction features the works of such time-honored typographers such as William Caslon, John Baskerville and Ed Benguiat. If a Pirates attraction were designed today, I'm apt to say the designers would probably choose more aged and distressed fonts. To a type nut like me, the typography tells the story of when this attraction was created—it has a refinement that doesn't rely on gimmicks to enhance the story. It is truly one of my favorite font palettes within the Disney Parks. 

Well that about does it for this week’s case study. Tune in for more fun Designerland updates. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Retro 71

This week’s Retro 71 concept is a simplistic design based on another souvenir bag from Disney Theme Parks. The bag I looked to for inspiration was used at Disneyland back in the early 80's, I believe. I had found the retro bag on the blog, Jungle is 101, and instantly fell in love with the design. More recently, two of my favorite Disney Consumer Product gurus, Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily, designed a limited edition ceramic version of a classic paper cup that featured the same design, which makes me suspect that souvenir bag could be from even further back, seeing how the ceramic cup was based off of a design from 1955.

For my take on this look, I simply replaced the icon of Sleeping Beauty's Castle with the classic retro icon of Cinderella's Castle. I kept the color palette similar to the bag design as I really enjoyed the color combinations. The clothing marker below shows the design on a simple white t-shirt however the real shirt would be a vintage ringer tee with yellow contrast banding around the arms and neckline. The simplistic design is fun and whimsical, and was classic enough to stand alone without any distressing or texture. 

Well that about does it for this installment of Retro 71. I look forward to seeing you back soon for my Designerland updates. Have a good week!