Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The Signs Of The Times...

Take it as a sign...







The very point of a theme park is to have a theme...

This was one of the problems with DCA 1.0. really. You could say it had a theme, but it wasn't very strong or clear, it wasn't thought out and it wasn't really good.

For Imagineers it was a rare misfire.

When WDI began the task of taking/remaking California Adventure it needed a cohesive theme that would work throughout the new lands/areas/ to focus this park into a place that guests would want to go.

It's clearly been a success, but sometimes people don't notice all the little things. In addition to the architecture, the smallest of details help tell a story. For instance: Signs point the way, and lead the mind to the conclusion that it's believing the world that has been created for it. Or not. In this case, it works remarkably well.

Buena Vista Street is supposed to take you back to the late Twenties or Thirties and pull you into the period. The signs here are a great reflection of that. The buildings and music and atmosphere are all wonderful, but it's the signs that point the way.


























And these are only a few signs of what you take in as you walk into this representation of Walt's past...

2 comments:

Sign Me Out said...

The signs look nice, but almost too nice. They take the period look and added a stylization that seems phony. For instance in the trolley sign, the "comfort speed safety" text is disproportionally large. The Atwater sign has exaggerated flourishes to its font. They seem to scream out to the audience to look at me.

Well, maybe in ten years we will barely notice, which will probably save the attempt.

andie said...

DCA did have a theme which is California. It didn't really have a deeper meaning beyond that. Before the revamp it was a theme park for theme park sake. It might have well been another Knott's with misplaced Disney characters. The Imagineers simply didn't connect it or make it pertain to Walt & his dreams which is what the revamp did.