Week 10 - Disney, Imagination, and You

Today, for our last blog entry, I went to Dowtown Disney for a few hours. It was nice for a change, aiming to spend all my time at the shopping area, with no intention of going to the parks. At first, I noticed the area near the shuttle loading, next to the World of Disney store. For the holidays, the trees were all lit up with colored lights. Not Christmas lights exactly, which I liked. They seemed more like little fireworks.

Later, I compared them with actual fireworks. How wonderful is it that fireworks just happen at Disneyland, for no big reason.

At that place, outside the World of Disney, I noticed how dark the actual walking area was. I feel that there are certain areas of Downtown Disney where the visitors are not encouraged to spend much time in. In this initial area, the brightest lights are the gates to Disneyland, the World of Disney, and the vendors. Because of this, as a visitor, I feel somewhat unsafe being in the dark, outside of these intended areas. Then, there are larger areas, which I feel the designers meant to have visitors meander into. The lighted ceilings and wide open well-lit ground seem more visitor friendly, and generally attract larger crowds.

As for shops: first, I noticed the AMC theater. It has always looked pretty cool to me, somewhere between a UFO and an art-deco metallic conversation piece.

With the neons, plus the geometric designs on the outside lights, it seems like most other theaters in that art deco style. However, when I walked inside, the style completely changed.

Inside, the theme did not seem UFO/deco at all, but celestially white, airy, and starry, with ornate columns near the doors. It felt almost Olympian. That's even before seeing the actual constellations on the ceiling. When did this change happen? This was not what I was expecting from the outside, it seems like an entirely different space. To me, this seemed like a failure in communcation between the outside and inside designers.

On the other hand, there is the Lego store. The outside lights are simple, only two downlights every now and then, but are powerful enough to light the whole wall. This simplicity and symmetry just shouts LEGO to me.

Inside, the symmetry wasn't as apparent, but the simplicity manifested itself in a new way. The walls inside are white, like a blank canvas (not like clouds in the AMC theater), which seems fitting for a toy all about creativity. The track lights are not hidden and feature very bold color choices. I think my favorite thing about the lighting in the store is that it does not match. It is ugly. But it works for me. Legos are about trying new things, without any punishment or criticism. So what if there is a red light on the giraffe, next to a yellow structure and a blue skyscraper? This is pure unhindered imagination, the mind of a child, and I think the Lego store succeeded in capturing that theme.