By: Bimol Bee
Submitted: 2011-12-01 07:40:11 | Word Count: 598
Theme park designers as well as master planners are unique in their profession as they create excellent designs for entertainment, amazing their audience via the appropriate balance between high-tech thrills, immersive environments, and great emotional content. Theme Park designers use a great number of techniques like environmental, experiential, and breakthrough theatrical and film techniques. Their goal is to create an attraction or a theme park to attract and impress their visitors.
Theme park designers combine their creative skills and innovative technological advancements making their creations just perfect, so that people can feel the thrills of a race down the Himalayan mountains, an African river excursion, meeting swashbuckling pirates.
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The Work
Usually, the average theme park job lasts eighteen months and can be situated in any country of the world. Most of work is done on different projects, that's it's necessary for designers to network heavily in order to move from job-to-job with no difficulty. Many theme park design firms are situated in Los Angeles and Orlando, FL.
Theme Park designers are required to have many important skills and talents, thus, there're more than 150 various job titles of theme park design. Some of these careers include:
Illustrator/Concept Artist: Illustrators are responsible for the design of an attraction that usually depends on their inspiration. Illustration can be studied at a public or private art/ design school.
Engineer: Engineers study mathematics and programming to deal with the mechanics of a themed environment. Engineering schools can be found at many universities, colleges, and private universities. Among the most important subjects are also electrical, structural, computer science and mechanical engineering.
Architects: Architects are licensed and trained in designing of the attractions and are involved in supervising the definite construction. An architect must possess the knowledge of building and operational codes, as well as the construction methods needed for the builder in constructing the attraction's building and different structures, and the wished results with the costs as well as construction schedule limits.
Interior Designers: They should learn a great number of disciplines to offer the safety, function, and aesthetics of themed interior rooms. Their major responsibility is to correctly combine various textures, colors, furniture, space and lighting.
Film/ Video Specialists: These specialists produce the ride films for different attractions. For instance, for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, filmmakers created the attraction's ride system. The ride introduces guests in filmed scenes and moves these scenes together with them through the ride.
Show Writer: Show writer is responsible for creating the impressive story guests are going to experience in the ride.
These were just a few types of specialists necessary for producing a theme park or themed attraction. In fact there're hundreds of trades including set decorators, industrial designers, lighting designers, graphic designers, carpenters, contractors, model builders, landscapers, sculptors, lawyers, and painters.
Education
Generally, there're no college degree programs for theme park designers. As there're hundreds of career fields in theme park design numerous disciplines are required to produce one. So, an individual needs to decide what area he or she wants to work in and then get the necessary skills.
This individual is recommended the following schools of higher education:
The International Academy of Design & Technology Art Center; University of Cincinnati; The Art Institutes in California; California Ringling School of Design; etc.
Numerous schools in Southern California, for instance, Cal State Fullerton, USC, UCLA, and UC Irvine are excellent options.
One can also join professional such organizations as (IAAPA) and the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, and visit their meetings and conventions.
