New Layout!

I thought it was time to create a new layout for the blog. Still tweaking things here and there, but it's pretty much complete! I made a new logo, background, header, everything! The look was inspired by vintage 1970s ticket books from the Magic Kingdom and the color scheme was based off the attraction, Space Mountain. 

For the logo, I went to a Transportation Ticket for a little inspiration:

I really liked how the median spurs added a regal sense; it looked like a logo you'd find on Main Street USA. The header is obviously based on a classic E-A Ticket book, which was the key to the fun back when the Magic Kingdom opened. Beings these letters were hand-rendered, it took a lot of effort to completely re-design them. 

Photos from Vintage Disneyland Tickets.

The "skyline" right under the header represents the six "lands" that make up the Magic Kingdom: Main Street U.S.A (represented by the train station), Fantasyland (Cinderella Castle), Liberty Square (Haunted Mansion), Frontierland (Big Thunder Mountain), Adventureland (Aladdin's Magic Carpets), and Tomorrowland (Space Mountain). 

Hope you like it! I think it will help set the context for the designs to come!

Magic Kingdom Badge Shirt Design

The 40th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom last October was an understated and nostalgic event. One of the big things the park had to offer on October 1st was the variety of limited edition 40th anniversary merchandise. Special pins, purses, shirts, journals, and just about anything else you can imagine could be sold to commemorate the occasion. One thing that really stood out to me was a series of retro-looking badge designs for each of the four parks. These graphics were combined with old park logos and photos to create a pattern that was applied on a variety of merchandise. I thought it would be fun to take a closer look at the Magic Kingdom emblem:

The fireworks and stylized rendering of the castle really capture the magic of the park in the 1970s. I re-designed the badge to make vector-based design, altered the colors and parts of the text, and added a distressed look to make it look good on a shirt.

Surely the Magic Kingdom will continue to be the capitol of vacations for another 40 years! Happy Anniversary, Magic Kingdom!

Cheshire Cat Typographic Portrait

Something we all love about Disney is its classic characters. We all grew up watching them save the day, sing songs, and fight brave battles. One of my favorite characters is the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. His grinning, whimsical character design is just as appealing to the rest of the great visuals in the film. When I was assigned to do a typographic portrait for my typography class, the Cheshire Cat was a pretty easy descision.

A total of 689 characters from the Bembo font make up the grinning cat. I picked Bembo because its known for its playfulness and usage in children's books. In fact, Bembo appeared as the body text of one of the first editions of Lewis Carroll's "Alice Through the Looking Glass".

Hopefully this won't be the last of this type of poster. Although it's quite time consuming, they're really fun to make!

Retro Castle Shirt Design

Hey guys! Wow, time really flies when you're schedule's overloaded! Again, it seems like I've neglected to update with a new design in way too long. But I've found time to whip up a quick shirt design and start on some things that will be posted in the future!

This design is inspired by the old WDW ticket books from the 1970s. These ticket books (along with some other printed material) featured a fantastic castle illustration that's the epitome of early Disney World: classic, regal, and detailed. I took the castle image into Illustrator, where I made it into a vector-based design (a process that took a total of 2.5 hours). Adding the retro WDW logo makes this design simple and reminiscent of the good ol' days of Disney World.