Disney Pixarfest
For Pixar Fest 2018, Disneyland partnered with McGarryBowen to develop the event's visual identity and supporting campaign across video, packaging, environmental graphics, transportation wraps, merchandise, and digital experiences. Centered around the theme "Celebrating Friendship and Beyond," the identity brought Pixar's most beloved character relationships to life through a vibrant, scalable system designed to connect every guest touchpoint.
The result was an immersive campaign that helped drive excitement around one of Disneyland's most successful celebrations. From monorail wraps and in-park experiences to promotional content seen throughout Southern California, the identity transformed the resort into a celebration of Pixar storytelling. More importantly, the visual system has stood the test of time, its core design principles, illustrations, and creative framework continue to influence and appear in PixarFest experiences today, demonstrating the flexibility and longevity of a design system built to evolve alongside the event.
My Role
As a designer on the Pixar Fest 2018 visual identity, I helped bring the campaign theme, “Celebrating Friendship and Beyond,” to life across a wide range of guest touchpoints. Our team began by researching Pixar’s most iconic friendships, identifying beloved character pairings whose relationships embodied the spirit of adventure, loyalty, and connection at the heart of the festival. I, along with another designer illustrated the featured character duos and partnered closely with Disney teams to ensure the creative vision translated seamlessly into the park experience. Working alongside a multidisciplinary creative team, I applied the identity across environmental graphics, transportation wraps, promotional materials, and digital experiences, helping create a cohesive visual system that transformed Disneyland Resort into an immersive celebration of Pixar’s most memorable friendships.
The Illustrations
The illustration style celebrates the heart of Pixar storytelling: friendship. Each character pairing is intentionally composed so their forms, colors, and silhouettes flow into one another, creating a sense of connection that feels inseparable. Rather than existing as individual characters placed side by side, the figures visually overlap and bleed across color fields, reinforcing the idea that their identities and journeys are shaped by one another.
Bold, simplified color blocking allows each duo to maintain their unique personality while creating a unified composition. The backgrounds borrow from the characters' palettes and merge seamlessly together, visually blurring the boundaries between them. This approach transforms every illustration into a single, interconnected graphic moment that symbolizes the trust, loyalty, and companionship that define Pixar's most beloved friendships and embodies the spirit of "Celebrating Friendship and Beyond."
Going Beyond
Bringing Pixar Fest to life required close collaboration across Disney, production, and agency teams to ensure the visual identity translated seamlessly from concept into a fully immersive guest experience. We made sure to establish design governance principles that protected the integrity of the visual identity while allowing it to scale across a wide range of applications. This included reviewing production specifications, testing print colors and materials to ensure consistency across environments, and adapting the creative system to meet the unique requirements of physical installations and merchandise.
Together, we evolved the identity beyond traditional marketing into a cohesive brand experience spanning in-park environments, signage, transportation wraps, merchandise, retail experiences, packaging, and out-of-home executions. By maintaining creative consistency across every touchpoint while collaborating closely with production partners, we created a unified visual language that allowed guests to experience the Pixar Fest brand long before entering the park and throughout every stage of their visit.
