Joe Garlington

Theme Park Design,
USC Interactive Media and Games

Joe Garlington, as creative lead for interactive projects at WDI, was responsible for the development of interactive attractions for Disney theme parks. Joe also led long-term visioning for Disney’s Epcot theme park and partnered with WDI R&D in the development of new concepts for theme park entertainment.

Currently Joe consults and teaches theme park design part time at USC, where he also worked with the Interactive Media and Games Department to build a theme park design minor.

Build where your mysteries are. Focus on those. What you want to do is use your visual design to lure people to the boiling cauldron with all the stuff that's going on there.

“Find something that's so naturally intriguing that everybody wants to watch it." Then you learn whatever you want to learn about it.”

“There's a natural intrigue to boxes that are closed to us. The unknowns of the cell are the same as a world built on puzzles and mysteries. People want to discover those unknowns.”

“Kinesthetics is a hugely immersive tool. Using my own body in motion, even in a virtual world makes the experience all the more real.”