More than just art, but a preview into a story!
The Walt Daily
Early Attraction Posters of Disneyland
Hi everyone! At Disney, a poster is not just a decoration for the wall, but also a snapshot and preview into a story. The importance of poster art for Disney attractions goes all the way back to 1956, soon after Disneyland opened its gates. Imagineers knew that the concept of a theme park might be difficult for guests to fully grasp, as when Disneyland first opened, an amusement park that featured attractions around a central theme was basically unheard of. So when they were thinking of a way to help guests understand that depending on the area of the park you're in, you'll dive into experiences of fantasy and adventure and so on. Disney decided that bright silk screen attraction posters underneath the main street train station would be the perfect solution. They already had plenty of experience making posters for motion pictures and shorts, enticing guests to go see their films. Yet, there were some considerations they wanted to stick to when making the first set of attraction posters for Disneyland. The first 17 attraction posters were bold in color and stylized in a way that was very popular in the 1950s, but imagineers decided to stick to big blocks of colors to make the screening process as simple as possible. The attraction poster concept was developed during a time before computers were used to create art. The super laborious process could mean that a single poster could take 30 days to create and could cost $30,000 to produce. The time and cost increases with the integration of more detail and more colors. The posters often gave you a peek into what the right experience would be like for you, the guest. The Octopia poster showed you and a family member speeding around in a car. Peter Pan, a pirate ship sailing through the air past Big Ben. And on the Jungle Cruise, you'll be sailing on a boat past elephants and hippos, all giving you just a taste of what you're in store for when you go on the ride. Now, a short case study of the storybook land canal boats original attraction poster. The large yellow background gives way to the main focal point of the poster, Monstro, the blue whale from Pinocchio, and a small pink and blue boat carrying guests traveling into his mouth, making you wonder just what could lie ahead. The poster advertises the gateway to enchantment, storybook land in fantasy land. Today, Disney enthusiast treasure attraction posters from every Disney park. The artwork has inspired books in park exhibits, and even though they were originally developed to be just promotions, they have become masterpieces in their own rights. [Music]