PREFACE Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World are more than just theme parks. These immersive environments are part living museum, part botanical garden, and part interactive art exhibition. But most of all, they’re places to find inspiration to enhance daily life beyond the berm. Sprinkled throughout the parks are visual cues and vignettes with ingenious ideas; sparks of design brilliance are everywhere. From the way the edible landscaping is arranged in Tomorrowland to the use of ornate Victorian wallpaper in the foyer of the Haunted Mansion, there are so many inspirations to bring the magic home.
In lieu of rushing from attraction to attraction, I end up spending a good chunk of my Disney Park time strolling in awe of all the eclectic design decisions that Imagineers made to create this magic, always taking mental notes and cataloging these choices. My own “bring the magic home” journey began with a wallpaper. Not one of the iconic ones, but the cheery nostalgic floral used in the River Belle Terrace, the restaurant located at the corner of Adventureland and Frontierland. I spent far too much time searching for the exact wall covering they used (a powder blue background with white and pink flowers accented with parrots and cockatiels) for my breakfast nook walls. Instead of finding one that was identical, I ended up with a completely different floral pattern in a totally different hue. But, to me, it still has a similar essence to the one at Disneyland, and when sitting in this nook, I’m imbued with the same emotional response I have when sitting on the edge of the Rivers of America. I am happy.
Bring the Magic Home explores how to infuse the wonder and whimsy found in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom into the home, and how decorating personal spaces can evoke the emotions of contentment and joy that we feel in the resorts. I recruited Disney Parks fans from all over the country to share their own homespun homages to the happiest and most magical places on Earth. In addition, I created an array of tributes in my own house in San Francisco as an exploration of how sparks of Disney magic can be incorporated in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
It’s important to look at those who created the elements that inspire us so. There are hundreds of talented and very skilled people who create the magic found at the parks. But unlike a film crew, in which the contributions of director and craft services alike are publicly acknowledged in the credits, Imagineers mostly work discreetly behind the scenes, shrouded in mystery. This is by design. The spell that is cast of a believable, immersive environment would break if a list of the magicians materialized. In Bring the Magic Home, we had the honor to interview some of these conjurers and to peek behind the curtain to find out more about their special brand of magic. And a few Imagineers, both past and present, have included their unique spins on the themed environments we’ve featured in the book.
No matter how you embody the Disney resort spirit in your personal spaces, the results will, indubitably, bring the magic home.
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO DISNEYLAND DESIGN “To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past . . . and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America . . . with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.” —Walt Disney, Disneyland dedication, July 17, 1955 Disneyland is your land.” This pronouncement by Walt Disney on opening day is one that guests have truly taken to heart. Devotees of the parks consider Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom an extension of their own personal space: a dynamic place where memories are etched onto their time lines and where dreams, however fleeting, can come true. Disneyland is their happy place, their escape, and their utopian home.
With these deep personal ties, a kind of emotional ownership was effectively predicted on opening day when Walt proclaimed that “Disneyland is your land.” Guests become players wholly immersed in the Disneyland story. Main Street, U.S.A., is their main street. Frontierland is their rustic backyard. Adventureland is where they explore. Tomorrowland is where they daydream about the future. New Orleans Square is their quick domestic getaway. Fantasyland is the manifestation of their storybook dreams.
Those of us acutely swayed by Disney magic are well aware of the sense of joy that washes over us once we step onto Disney ground. After passing through the pedestrian tunnels, that first moment on Main Street, U.S.A., is transformative. Some may not be able to pin down the sensation they are experiencing precisely; they just know that when they are there, they are happy. This is all by design. The parks possess the “architecture of reassurance,” as Imagineer and Disney Legend John Hench called it: the feeling that everything is okay. All the environments that the Imagineers have meticulously created deliver that keen sense of well-being and wonder as well as adventure and action, but in a safe and secure way.
The idea of Disneyland is a simple one. It will be a place for people to find happiness and knowledge. . . . It will be filled with accomplishments, the joys and hopes of the world we live in. And it will remind us and show us how to make these wonders part of our own lives. —Walt Disney, “The Disneyland Story” After a day at the parks, to grasp onto this fleeting feeling of joy, guests flock to the stores in Disney resorts to take home a memento, a way to extend that euphoric feeling a wee bit longer. A pair of Minnie Mouse ears or a Magic Kingdom Spirit Jersey may be a sufficient reminder of their visit, but there are other meaningful ways to bring the magic home and to “make these wonders part of our own lives.” This is just what the Disney Parks fans in this book have done. For them, it’s not about a commemorative popcorn bucket or a knickknack on the kitchen counter; it is about creating an environment that’s truly evocative of the special spaces at Disney Parks. As the celebrity designer Nate Berkus stated in his book
The Things That Matter, “Your home should tell the story of who you are, and be a collection of what you love.” And for many, who they are, are Disney resorts fans and what they love are the places and spaces in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom.
THE ART OF THE SHOW “We give power to the guests’ imagination, to transcend their everyday routine,” John Hench wrote in Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show. “[Walt insisted] that our guests should ‘feel better because of’ their experiences in Disney theme parks.”
John’s words may have been in reference to being physically present in the parks, but fans can “feel better” in their personal spaces, too, by channeling that sense of contentment. Achieving this can be as simple as looking to “the art of the show,” a term used by Disney that John said “applies to what we do at every level, from the broadest conceptual outlines to the smallest details, encompassing visual storytelling, characters, and the use of color.” In the two-dimensional sense, this approach is akin to considering how movie sets and props will look in wide and medium shots and in close-up. The “art of the show” goes one step further: it encompasses every element utilized to tell the tale in tangible ways. This same philosophy can easily be applied to the residential space. The home is the “show,” but it possesses practical purposes such as eating, entertaining, and sleeping rather than leading up to an amusement park ride.
WE ALL START WITH A BLANK CANVAS I first saw the site for Disneyland back in 1953. In those days, it was all flat land—no rivers, no mountains, no castles or rocket ships—just orange groves, and a few acres of walnut trees. —Walt Disney Disney Imagineers, at the start of each project, are tasked with the challenge of place making: the art of infusing space with meaning out of nothing. “When we design any area of a Disney Park, we transform a space into a story place,” John Hench said. “Every element must work together to create an identity that supports the story of the place.” These theme park artisans have the idea and the inspiration, but when the process begins, they are met with empty walls and clear space. This is the same starting point that we at home begin with—space and walls. Of course, there are parameters: the amount of space, base style of the area, and budget. But just as Imagineers fabricate a themed environment seemingly out of thin air, so can anyone, although we are doing it on a much smaller scale.
When you’re studying the places and spaces in Disney Parks, you’re learning from the best in the business. The Imagineers responsible have created the quintessential example of what a themed environment should be. Our blank walls are the canvas where we can express ourselves and depict the world we want to live in. These once vacant spaces can be brought to life with a Mary Blair–like flourish or transformed into an exotic jungle. It’s about taking a space and transforming it into a place; seizing that interior design opportunity to add a bit of escapism into the home. Disney had realized, in Aubrey Menen’s words, the “strongest desire an artist can know”: the urge “to create a world of his own where everything is just as he imagines it.”
FROM THE BLUE SKY DOWN TO EARTH “It’s called Blue Sky because the sky’s the limit,” David Durham, creative development executive for Blue Sky at Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), once told me in an interview.
Before any of the physical work begins, the Disney designers allow their imaginations to soar by diving into what Imagineers call the Blue Sky process. These brainstorming sessions are where all their concepts come alive. “You’re free to explore any ideas, and the possibilities are endless,” David said. “Eventually, you have to come back down to Earth and make sure your ideas are achievable. But it’s important to start big . . . as big as the sky.” This is the time to think outside of the box, starting with a blank piece of paper.
We’ll put a few people in a room for a couple of hours, and we’ll start exploring the topic of the idea. We may relate firsthand experiences or talk about research we’ve done in advance. We’ll discuss what the emotion of the experience should be. We’ll toss around snippets of ideas, fragments of story, watching what catches someone’s eye. And then . . . we’ll go away. Often, ideation requires you to literally “sleep on it.” The brain is like any muscle; you’ve got to work it, then you’ve got to let it rest. Some of your best thinking is just as likely to happen between brainstorming sessions as in them. —Dave Durham Once the formation of the principal idea is established, Imagineers can ascertain what is feasible and continue improving the concept and the planning of the all-important execution. “We continually strive for perfection in design, which is ever elusive, but gets closer with every new iteration and with the more effort and energy that we apply,” Imagineer Orrin Shively wrote in The Imagineering Way. That effort and energy is a collaborative process, and it all begins at the same starting point. Then layers of experience are added to the project to see it to fruition. There is an immense amount of effort and energy involved in making Disney magic, and this is due to many talented people. It all starts with one spark of imagination; then, it is a matter of making it all happen.
BUDGETS AND TAPPING INTO THE DIY ETHOS The budget is always one of the significant hurdles when taking on any project, be it a brand-new theme park attraction or a bathroom remodel. “[Herb] Ryman once said it was just as expensive to do something meaningful and historically based as to make up something meaningless and to put that in,” Imagineer Eddie Sotto recalled in Theme Park Design. “Bad taste costs no more.” Although Disney has a much larger budget than the average citizen, they still work within financial limits while aiming to maximize the guest experience. With creative thinking, budget constraints shouldn’t get in the way of creating your own unique home experience, especially if you embrace the do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos.
Disneyland was built by a team brimming with this DIY spirit. Imagineering was shockingly small in the early days, especially in terms of what they were attempting to accomplish. During the development of Disneyland, there were only about thirty people in the department. Walt’s skeleton crew comprised artists from diverse backgrounds, many recruited from his motion picture studio, but none of them knew how to make a first-of-its-kind amusement park. They were all learning on the job. These creatives were jettisoned out of their comfort zones and pushed to master new skills and invent new ways of doing things. There was no blueprint to build from, neither figuratively nor literally (Walt preferred models to paper plans).
You know, we’d never done any of this before . . . none of us had . . . we just did it. I was trained by Walt to try anything that he asked me to do. I hadn’t done any of the things that I did at WED [predecessor of Walt Disney Imagineering], but neither had Walt when he built Disneyland. It was a constantly educational program, and one thing that Walt taught me was never to be afraid when you’re handed a project. Just take it and go with it. I learned so much from each one of these projects. —Rolly Crump “That was what was so great about the company back then,” Imagineer and Disney Legend Rolly recalled. “Everything was hands-on at all times, from start to finish.
DO RESEARCH When we consider a new project, we really study it—not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job. —Walt Disney “I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real,” Walt once wrote. This piece of wisdom from Walt can aptly be applied to numerous situations, from a theme park to your own backyard. There is, as they said, power in knowledge, and that knowledge can go deep. This leads to confidence in the idea and the execution, no matter the project.
Copyright © 2024 by Disney. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
