Land of the Rising Mickey
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Marc: It sounds (and looks) like you had a great team. Would you tell us a little more bit about them?
Eddie: The WDIJ (Walt Disney Imagineering, Japan) office is an excellent mix of seasoned Imagineers like Rudy Lord and also exceptional talent that has come from OLC like Shoko Ohto, and Kathy Mathis. When we have a WDI designed project, we also send Imagineers over to follow through and art direct like Kelley Ford. Thiese are just a few examples of why we succeed, there are MANY more to thank both in Japan and at WDI. OLC also has its own team that also designs under the approval of Rudy and the Imagineers and they are talented too.
My point here is that there is actually a rare and wonderful relationship that exists only on Tokyo projects. The Attractions division works unusually well with WDI and the communication is great. I think this was such a plus. OLC has many fine people as well and the one thing everyone agrees on is that we all only want to do our best and deliver the highest quality Disney product we can. That ethic extends to the stateside TDL team here too. It was a rare experience and the word "team" fits with them as it well as it comes. The work however speaks for the team itself and I'm proud to have had the privilege to work with all of them. Even after I left the company, they have remembered me with "care" packages of trinkets and photos of the Attractions as they have opened. It wasn't always easy, but I'm all about execution and results and they came through. I have always felt a part of the TDL family. Now my biggest problem each morning is whether to wear the Hunny Hunt watch or the Bon Voyage one!
Marc: I think there's something nice and also very appropriate about your team staying in touch. As I'm sure you know, in Japan, the bonds of loyalty developed in business are especially strong, regardless of whether the people involved are working for different companies.
Changing gears, I've noticed there's a certain continuity to your work. Do you feel there's a "signature" to your design?
Eddie: The "signature" first and foremost is always "Disney". The best way we knew how to do that was to entertain, make the architecture "smile," and keep it optimistic and romantic.
If there is a "style" to what I do, it's to create sophisticated things with a point of view that read in a simple, broad way. I try to take things that people aspire to or relate to in contemporary culture and blend them into the design to make them as relevant as possible.
The British country queue for Pooh wanted to be more "shabby chic" style than a literal country farm (the chipping paint, Martha Stewart thing.) Bon Voyage's interior is filled with 40's swing music because it not only was appropriate, but was having a bit of a revival. "Queen of Hearts" was "Alice" themed because the swirl patterns and graphic motifs have been revived through Tim Burton's films and modern furniture. It would subtly relate to a certain audience as "today" even though it is disguised as traditional Disney.
Each project we did at WDI strove to "push the envelope" of design a bit and looked for the next level. At least I hope we did that! I'm all about romance and how to make spaces feel that way. Aspiration is another thing we tried to think of when we did attractions, "What does the guest dream of" and then try to deliver it beyond their expectations (i.e. bounce with Tigger.)