Before You Even Parked
The Disneyland sign is a good reminder of how much a design can communicate without showing the whole experience. There was something about seeing the Disneyland sign from the car. Before you parked, walked [...]
More Than a Font
Good typography tells us what something says. Great typography helps tell us what something feels like. Before most people ever walked beneath the Disneyland Railroad or saw Sleeping Beauty Castle in person, they had [...]
The Weekend Disneyland Became Visible
It started with one person describing what he could see in his mind and another person listening closely enough to draw it. Before Disneyland was a place, it was an idea inside Walt Disney’s [...]
The Mountain in Miniature
Sometimes an entire mountain is sitting right there at your feet. There is a moment in the Space Mountain queue where the attraction quietly repeats itself. Not in a sign, not in a logo, [...]
Left or Right?
Two tunnels. Same destination. Two slightly different views. There is a moment at Disneyland that happens before Main Street, U.S.A., before the music fully takes over, and before the castle ever comes into view. [...]
Main Street U.S.A.—Where the Outside World Ends
Walking beneath the railroad tracks, and rediscovering the feeling of home. There is a moment when you enter Disneyland when the outside world seems to disappear. It doesn’t happen all at once. You pass [...]