Shanghai Disney Pinocchio Restaurant

Case Study

Challenge

Design a series of murals and 3D artwork to narrate the story of Pinocchio to a Chinese audience unfamiliar with the film.

I designed and illustrated 30 images featuring key narrative scenes from the film, and created ribbon border that could be color coded to different palettes within the restaurant. The ribbon borders also provided a place for English and Chinese captions. In addition, I designed sculptural decorative flats reflecting the theme of Gepetto’s workshop.

2013-2014

Concept, Design, Digital Painting

Walt Disney Imagineering

Project Manager: Lori Coltrin

From Concept to Production

Thanks to new technologies, I’m able to create the actual artwork that ends up being blown up to size and mounted on the wall.

Early sketches lead to final inks, with meetings and adjustments all along the way, then to final color.

Murals

The longest image was over forty feet long. At those sizes, it would have taken a team of people weeks to paint all the murals in the restaurant. Instead, the artwork was printed on decal-like murals that were applied like wallpaper, then the backing peeled off, and final varnish applied.

Visual Storytelling

Each key story point needed to be summarized in one scene. In addition, the restaurant was divided into four zones, each with its own color palette and decor — so I created borders that matched each area.