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Spaceship Earth is such an extremely complex entity that its mere existence alone could be called an engineering miracle. From its structural technique to is metaphoric message, it is so completely symbiotic that, like is triangular exterior, it is often hard separate its many and interconnected facets. Nevertheless, the intricate way in which the story of man-kind was compiled and presented serves as a testament to Art of Imagineering and its way of presenting history and factual information in an thoughtful, intelligent and surprisingly entertaining way. In the future, E82 will go in greater detail on all aspects of Spaceship Earth’s development, construction, thematic structure, and four generations of evolution. But for now, I’d like to examine just exactly why she is encased into such a specialized material. Alucobond is quite literally (and appropriately) a space-age composite that was first manufactured the year we landed on the moon in 1969. Interestingly, like the Lunar-Lander, the original concept for Spaceship Earth was to be covered in a metallic gold. After through research it was determined that gold would retain heat and reflect the already blinding Florida sun. As a result, silver (known for being able to reflect heat) was chosen as the primary color of Spaceship Earth’s Geosphere. The brushed Aluminum surface solved the reflected light problem, and also led to more thematically appropriate aesthetic.
To paraphrase from the original literature, Spaceship Earth surface reflects the world it stands in tribute too. During the day, it softly defuses and refracts the blue skies, white clouds, and the green Earth. At night, her more prismatic qualities are revealed by the way breaks-up the color of a relatively small number of lights into hundreds of variating hues. In past years, the lighting schemes of Spaceship Earth were changed and more subtle variations enabled the sphere to reflect the lights of Future World and more specifically those of World Showcase. It is this description that encapsulates the visual meaning and message of Spaceship Earth: the precious sphere reflects Who We Are (W.S.) and our Collective Dreams for Tomorrow (F.W.).
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 Café-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…
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.
This is the first of many desktop backgrounds coming to you from the E82. Spaceship Earth Dawn is based on the original cover for the EPCOT Center Pre-Opening Guide (already pictured further down). In this, I wanted to capture the spirit of the original photography with the technology available today.Designer Note: Thanks to an unavoidable automatic gamma correction, this relatively easy to produce image took OVER 50 test saves to correct the complex colors on Spaceship Earth.
Full Screen
Wide Screen
Display instructions: Select the proper screen ratio (Full or Wide Screen) enlarge to original size and apply as Desktop Background. Then “Fit to Screen” and finally all Desktops are designed to fill the screen so please display with and Auto-Hide Taskbar.Stay Tuned Next Week when we'll be adding "Tangible Memories” to the mix of offerings from the World of E82!
