EPCOT Graphics - Ken Kerr

1976-1984 was a renaissance for Disney parks’ logo systems, marketing materials and all printed or silkscreened signage, park attraction/park museum and marketing posters, for Epcot, Tokyo Disneyland, and the New Fantasyland. This was due to an inspirational and multi-talented illustrator, Ken Kerr, who was recruited by senior management at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, to manage the graphic communication effort. He created a long-term plan and fought for budgets to once again design and hand silkscreen park attraction posters in-house, oversaw the design and development of all of the logo systems, signage, menus, trashcans, decals, bumper stickers, maps, employee motivation posters/calendars, buttons, as well as hiring, training, and building a cohesive team of 83 employees in five locations across the USA from 1978-79 to design and produce all print and signage for EPCOT OPENING OCTOBER 1982, TDL OPENING April 1983, NEW FANTASYLAND May 1983. Keep in mind that everything was designed by hand.Two new parks and one major land renovation at one time. No computers, no project management system, no sophisticated printers. Think of all the signs inside and outside a single world showcase country, the themed trashcans, the menus, the shopping bags, the merchandise, the special event or museum posters. . . . A graphic artist wasn’t just responsible for a single sign or a single restaurant, each artist had his own land or pavillion in EPCOT. You couldn’t take something off the shelf and tweak it. The buildings were firsts, the rides were firsts, everything in EPCOT Center was a first. And TDL, and New Fantasyland, and the Houston WEDWay all required promotional materials, brochures, books, maps, silkscreened attraction posters, coming soon signs, employee motivational posters/buttons/t-shirts/photo ops., all inspired and art directed by Ken Kerr. RIP 1943-2004.