Thursday, August 26, 2010

E82 Is Moving!

Ok, well not exactly. The website will stay in the same place, however in a few days I’ll be moving from the southwest to the southeast of Disney Property. I’ll actually be 10 minutes (or exactly 5 miles) from the Gate of Epcot! I’ve been packing for the last several weeks, and I’ll soon be going off-online. This is also the reason why both the quality and quantity of my posts have been somewhat lacking lately. As a result, E82 will be taking an unscheduled break and return to faster-than-normal postings October 1st. AND THEN be prepared for a blitzkrieg of new Desktops, Artwork, History and of course Music!

See You All In less than 35 days!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Constructing the Future

Although you may not notice it, things have been very busy for the E82 Project in the past month. Currently I’ve been very busy working on the next installment of The History of Imagination, Perfecting some desktop wallpapers to come, developing artwork for "An E82 Special Event" this Winter, as well as planning E82’s second year of discoveries. So while I’m busy “Constructing the Future” of E82 I thought this would be a perfect time to begin a new series based the final Construction of the Park itself.
30 days before opening of the “Newest Wonder of the World,” The EPCOT Center News Briefs provided daily progress reports for the many facets in bringing 21st century to life in 1982. (1) The following is the first in the series…




EPCOT Center News Brief (9-1-82)


COMMENTARY

This flyer briefly (no pun intended) touches on one of the most impressive and underappreciated accomplishments of the EPCOT Center Project: the Concrete Pour. As was said in David Koenig’s Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World; the job was so massive that it was split between several contractors. All of them having to re-adapt to working around other disciplines simultaneous finishing their own works. So as not to be disturbed (or be disturbed by others) most of the work was done at night. “To accommodate around-the-clock construction in areas where electricity had yet to be installed, Disney bought in a hook-and-ladder fire truck to shine enough light to allow more than 100 concrete finishers to keep working. Disney chefs also showed up in the middle of the night to grill hamburgers for the graveyard shift laborers. To maximize every second, The Disney World weather station sent weather reports of the EPCOT jobsite every ten minutes. Construction workers then had advance notice to protect their freshly poured concrete from an approaching thunderstorm.” In order to accommodate the complex construction sites of Future World, World Showcase was completed first, and then zigzag out as other areas became available.
The Color of the pavement was one of many decisions made personally by John Hench. In his book,
Designing Disney John described Pink as a very optimistic color. This, in addition other qualities including its neutral reflectiveness and contemporary feel, lead to his decision to make pink the overriding color for the pathways of tomorrow.

Foot Note
1. As part of a Cast Celebration, these flyers were reprinted daily as a countdown to the October 1st Anniversary of Epcot’s 25th year in 2007. I was working at Epcot at the time and these flyers although simple, were one of the coolest aspects of the celebration. I was always excited to come to work and read what interesting things happened on that same day 25 years ago.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Commerce in the 21st Century

A FEW YEARS AGO when E82 wasn’t even named yet, one aspect of this Project was always going to be collectable merchandise. As a graphic designer, I’ve always enjoyed seeing my designs exist beyond the computer screen and this CafĂ©-Press-World of easy customization has made such niche markets possible. The Centorium store was created to celebrate the World of E82 by providing followers and myself a marketplace for products that pay tribute to the Epcot that Was, Is and What Could Be. My decision to open a store on Zazzle.com was not done lightly, as I had been warned about such nasty and frightening things like copyright infringement, and licensing. However, after researching the site numerous times I noticed a few contradictory business practices. Zazzle has an official Walt Disney Company store, yet a simple search reveals over 200 products relating to Epcot all of which are not official products. So, through deductive reasoning I thought that ether it was completely legal to post products or The Company simply did not care about Epcot Products. Either way Zazzle did allow me to post products for sale, or so I thought.
Last week, as I was trying to buy one of my own products my order was cancelled for “Content” concerns. I’m usually very English about these things. (I don’t complain, I just don’t come back.) but in this case the E82 Poster is so (legally) abstract that I had to find out what the problem was. Several emails later I discovered that ANYTHING can be posted for sale and only when someone purchases an item is it reviewed. (1)
As a result, the Centorium is (once again) closed. My only true concern is that some of you may have received similar emails in attempting to purchase my products. (By the Way, did ANYONE every try to buy something?) THE GOOD NEWS is that several designs are now free to be posted on my Flickr account. This also allows me to explain some of the finer details of some works without appearing too commercial. Works like this…


E82 SSE Dawn Poster

The Original Poster launching The E82 Project on January 11th 2010 Features an accurate Credit Roll containing many of the individuals involved with the creation of EPCOT Center. If the park was a motion picture it would look like this (sans the final credit:).

Footnote:
1. This does clear up a mystery: that to spite my “Kick Ass Original Merchandise Designs” (Thank You, Mesa Verde Times) NO ONE has ever bought any of my products.