Poster Art of the Disney Parks, Second Edition

by Danny Handke

Overview

An expanded and updated second edition of the stunning collection of posters from Disney theme parks around the world! Features more than 85 new posters and concept art pieces and a lively narrative about their behind-the-scenes development.

Disney attraction posters have been an important means of communication since Disneyland began displaying them in 1956. These eye-catching pieces of artwork adorn the parks with flair and style, and are displayed to build excitement and disseminate information about the newest additions to the Disney landscape. As evidenced by the evolution of the attraction posters, art styles and design techniques have certainly changed over the years. These characteristics also differ from continent to continent. Posters from EPCOT, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland exhibit the nuances in presentation that give each park’s pantheon of posters its signature look and story.

This expanded and updated second edition is a must-have for anyone who loves the original book, for Disney collectors, and for students of the arts. Find inside:

• An incredible collection of original attraction posters from Shanghai Disneyland
• The extensive and graphically bold collection of EPCOT posters first unveiled at D23 Expo 2019
• Posters featuring attractions and lands inspired by storytelling from Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel
• A variety of vibrant voices quoted throughout the book, with interesting insights about the development of the posters over the years and the interconnection among art, typography, and graphic design—Disney style.

Searching for that perfect gift for the Disney theme park fan in your life? Explore more archival-quality books from Disney Editions:

• A Portrait of Walt Disney World: 50 Years of The Most Magical Place on Earth
• Holiday Magic at the Disney Parks
• The Disney Monorail: Imagineering a Highway in the Sky
• One Day at Disney: Meet the People Who Make the Magic Across the Globe
• Marc Davis in His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks
• Yesterday's Tomorrow: Disney's Magical Mid-Century
• Eat Like Walt: The Wonderful World of Disney Food
• Maps of the Disney Parks: Charting 60 Years from California to Shanghai
• The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781368062473
Publisher:	Random House Worlds
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Series:	Disney Editions Deluxe
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	11.30(w) x 14.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Danny Handke is a senior creative director for Walt Disney Imagineering, where he is responsible for creating and developing stories and ideas for Disney parks and cruise ships from concept to completion. On the Disney Wish cruise ship project, Danny is leading the creative direction and story development for Worlds of Marvel, AquaMouse, Star Wars: Hyperspace Lounge, Arendelle: A Frozen Dining Adventure, Disney’s Oceaneer Club, and more. He has worked for The Walt Disney Company for eighteen years. His recent projects include Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! at Disney California Adventure, the integration of Marvel and Star Wars to Disney’s Oceaneer Club across the Disney Cruise Line fleet, and several blue sky projects for Disneyland Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, and Hong Kong Disneyland. He is also coauthor of the first edition of Poster Art of the Disney Parks for Disney Editions. Danny was born in Highland Park, Illinois, and is a graduate of the Art Institute of Phoenix with a degree in Media Arts & Animation. He resides in Winter Garden, Florida, with his wife, Sachi, and daughter, Harley.

Vanessa Hunt worked for The Walt Disney Company for nearly twenty years. As a former Walt Disney Imagineer and a lifelong Disney aficionado, she was part of the group responsible for the original artwork preserved in the Walt Disney Imagineering Art Collection. She has been curator of several Imagineering exhibits featuring many of the works from the collection, and has consulted for The Walt Disney Family Museum. Vanessa is also the coauthor of the first edition of Poster Art of the Disney Parks (2012) as well as the wildly popular Maps of the Disney Parks (2016) and The Disney Monorail: Imagineering a Highway in the Sky (2020). In addition, Vanessa was the curatorial director on Marc Davis in His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks (2019). Currently, she is the Brand Design Content Specialist for Tillamook in Oregon.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 10
DISNEY CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK
 
“We always default to the great Walt Disney quote: ‘Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.’ Disney California Adventure, just like Disneyland and the other Disney parks, will continue to develop and evolve with its audience, but at its core it’s going to remain a place that inspires us to dream and then follow those dreams.”
—Bob Weis
 
In the early 2010s, Disney California Adventure went through a major reimagining and expansion. Under the supervision of executive producer Kathy Mangum and art directors Ray Spencer (Buena Vista Street), Larry Nikolai (Paradise Pier), and Greg Wilzbach (Cars Land), the Disney California Adventure posters were created to capture the enhanced Disney magic of the park. “We wanted to invigorate these new attractions with posters,” says Spencer. “Posters provide identity to the Disney parks.” Nikolai adds, “Our goal was to create simple images for a quick read but capture the spirit and excitement of the new attractions, so we knew to turn to the classic screen printed posters as inspiration.” Graphics designer Greg Maletic, who illustrated several opening day posters for Hong Kong Disneyland, was approached to develop twelve Disney California Adventure posters for already-existing attractions and new park additions: Red Car Trolley, The Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror, Soarin’ Over California, Grizzly River Run, The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Goofy’s Sky School, Mickey’s Fun Wheel, Silly Symphony Swings, California Screamin’, Radiator Springs Racers, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, and Luigi’s Flying Tires.
 
Since each land represented a different decade in California’s history, Maletic looked to graphics and posters of the periods as inspiration for the designs. “We knew where we were going with Grizzly River Run right from the start. It was going to be inspired by 1930s-era National Park Service posters, which had a very distinct silk-screened style and [a] limited palette of four or five colors,” says Maletic. “With Goofy’s Sky School, the obvious stylistic choice seemed to be making it like movie posters of the Goofy animated shorts from the 1940s.
 
“The Cars Land posters were straight 1950s-era styling—very primitive, very simple,” Maletic adds. Imagineers continue the tradition of adding new Disney California Adventure posters to this day. In 2017 a limited color Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT! attraction poster, inspired by Maletic’s style, adorned the ticket booths in the Esplanade on opening day of the attraction. In the shadow of the Collector and his fortress, the Guardians break out of the poster as the Abilisk holds Star-Lord’s mixtape, a major musical component in the experience, in its tentacles. Not even set in the original plans, this poster was done on the side as a labor of love from the project team!
 
CHAPTER 11
EPCOT
 
“EPCOT is a park about humanity—our dreams, our diversity, and those things that inspire us to look forward, to keep reaching and keep imagining what our future holds.”
—Zach Riddley
 
It's respected that EPCOT has a long history of bold and unique design, plus a visual legacy that’s completely its own. As far back at 2015, Imagineers were secretly developing what would become one of the largest transformations of any Disney park. As Zach Riddley, portfolio creative lead for EPCOT recalls, “We wanted to ensure that our transformation connected the rich past of EPCOT with its exciting future.” And they found the perfect moment to unveil this vision, at D23 Expo in 2019. The question was: how?
 
Riddley and executive producer Michael Hundgen were passionate Disney poster collectors. EPCOT had a handful of posters in the past, but not a full collection like in a typical castle park. That’s when they knew they were onto something special. “By creating a series of posters, we were able to seal the identity of EPCOT moving forward,” says Hundgen. It was a mad dash to make the D23 Expo. The first step was choosing a look. Riddley and Hundgen brought in artists from across Disney Parks, Experiences and Products to get a diversity of ideas and art styles. However, the mix of stylistic choices and genres clashed with the ideals of a unified EPCOT. They realized the true strength of a poster program came from a holistic vision.
 
Enter Eric Tan and Stacey Aoyama, both talented graphic designers and poster enthusiasts. Between the two of them, they designed the forty EPCOT attraction posters adorning the D23 Expo exhibit space. Inspired by mid-century minimalist posters and space-age graphics, Tan and Aoyama created a rich and bright color story that evokes feelings of nostalgia and excitement.
 
Explaining their design process, Tan says, “It begins with researching the attractions, reading about its history and collecting as many photos as we can find.” Aoyama adds, “I love the initial phase of the design process, when we get to dive into research and distill down the essential storytelling elements of each attraction. The next step was to sketch various composition and color ideas, trying to capture the right balance of character and environment within the minimalist aesthetic.”
 
Once the sketches were approved, Tan and Aoyama moved into final designs digitally. “This was truly a collaborative project between Eric, myself, and the EPCOT team. The final posters are reflective of the great ideas and teamwork that flowed throughout the process,” says Aoyama. Tan adds, “The time line Stacey [Aoyama] and I were given to complete the series was a lot tighter than we’re used to, so there was always this underlying nervousness that we would never get them all done. Fortunately, we got into a good groove towards the homestretch and were able to finish the series on time!”
 
Each design is anchored with the updated EPCOT logo—itself a past-meets-future bit of graphic design—in a prominent location at the base of each poster. This move gave the set a consistency that unified the collection. “Walt Disney said that EPCOT would ‘always be in a state of becoming,’ an idea that is captured beautifully through Eric and Stacey’s designs," says Riddley. "You can take a stroll through time, see some of your favorite bygone details, and be introduced to new stories that will create new memories for generations of EPCOT fans to come.”
 
“Some posters came together quite quickly, while others required three to five iterations. For myself, I always did about five very rough comps just to work through different design ideas and to problem solve before moving to a tighter rendition.”
—Stacey Aoyama, graphic designer, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Global Product Creation

“I want guests to be drawn in by the unique design direction and bright color palette. Hopefully that’s followed by the feeling of nostalgia and excitement as they’re taken back to the memories they have of the attractions themselves.”
—Eric Tan, graphic designer, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Global Product Creation

“The posters for Illuminations and Harmonious are meant to be viewed as a pair. Together they create a circle; another representation of the past, present, and future of EPCOT.”
—Michael Hundgen, executive producer, Walt Disney Imagineering

Table of Contents

PAGE 10: INTRODUCTION By Disney Legend Tony Baxter

PAGE 12: CHAPTER ONE: Here You Leave Today . . .

PAGE 34: CHAPTER TWO: Main Street, U.S.A.

PAGE 50: CHAPTER THREE: Adventureland

PAGE 70: CHAPTER FOUR: New Orleans Square, Liberty Square, and Mystic Point

PAGE 76: CHAPTER FIVE: Frontierland

PAGE 96: CHAPTER SIX: Fantasyland

PAGE 126: CHAPTER SEVEN: Tomorrowland

PAGE 170: CHAPTER EIGHT: Shanghai Disneyland

PAGE 184: CHAPTER NINE: Tokyo DisneySea

PAGE 202: CHAPTER TEN: Disney California Adventure

PAGE 216: CHAPTER ELEVEN: EPCOT

PAGE 248: INDEX

PAGE 252: SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ENDNOTES

PAGE 253: IMAGE CREDITS

PAGE 254: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

BONUS: Two full-color posters with metallic ink printing on each side of a perforated cardstock sheet.

Editorial Reviews

". . . not just a slightly updated version of the 2012 book. With an additional 100 pages (!!) this is really a brand-new book. More text, more illustrations, more information and way, way more posters, including development artwork for those posters. This is the kind of book I was hoping for in 2012. Better late than never. In other words: I was blown away by this volume. Definitely a ‘must-have’ and a great gift for the Holidays.”
—Didier Ghez, Disney History (disneybooks.blogspot.com)

PRAISE FOR MAPS OF THE DISNEY PARKS

"I've been intrigued by the process of mapping Disneyland and the other parks since I first pored over the fold-out map in the August 1963 issue of The National Geographic. Years later I had the privilege of meeting Herb Ryman who mapped 'The Happiest Place on Earth' for Walt Disney before it was even built (!) and Sam McKim who created many of our treasured Disney maps. To look at a map of a Disney park is to relive visits past and dream of visits yet to be. . . This book promises to satisfy those twin emotions!"—Brian Sibley, writer, broadcaster, and Disney scholar

PRAISE FOR MAPS OF THE DISNEY PARKS

"There are many books out there about Walt Disney, The Walt Disney Company, and the Disney Parks, and two that are a must for any Disney fan are Maps of the Disney Parks: Charting 60 Years from California to Shanghai and Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia, 5th Edition. . . . [Maps] is a beautiful coffee table book detailing six decades of maps and how each of the Parks evolved over the years. . . . This is a perfect book for the Disney fan and Disney historian alike."—Huffington Post

PRAISE FOR MAPS OF THE DISNEY PARKS

One of "20 Books Every True Disney Fan Should Have in Their Collection"—POPSUGAR

PRAISE FOR MAPS OF THE DISNEY PARKS

One of "The 9 Best Travel Books You Should Be Gifting This Holiday Season"—Forbes

PRAISE FOR POSTER ART OF THE DISNEY PARKS, FIRST EDITION

One of "19 Disney Gifts For The Grown-Up Disney Fans On Your List"—Romper

PRAISE FOR POSTER ART OF THE DISNEY PARKS, FIRST EDITION

One of "the Best Books About the Happiest Place on Earth"—LosAngeles Magazine

PRAISE FOR POSTER ART OF THE DISNEY PARKS, FIRST EDITION

One of "42 Disney Gifts That Will Make Their Home The Happiest Place On Earth"—BuzzFeed

From the Publisher